He may only be in his first years in the NBA, but already, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute knows what he wants to do with all of the opportunities his career affords him.

Give back.

His eyes are set on helping communities in his native Cameroon and throughout Africa, and in the summer of 2009, Luc began doing just that with Basketball Without Borders, the NBA's ongoing effort to give talented youth around the world a chance to play the game. It was in his own youth, as a camper with Basketball Without Borders, that Luc first glimpsed he might have a future as a professional basketball player.

Luc with a number of NBA players in Africa for Basketball Without Borders, 2009.

As reported by the New York Times:

The first-time counselor remembered exactly where he sat as a wide-eyed camper. He pointed to the spot and informed his audience that he was in that very space just six years ago.

The campers, about 70 strong, responded as if Luc Mbah a Moute had told them a joke.

“They laughed, like they couldn’t believe it was possible,” he said.

On the telephone from Johannesburg, Mbah a Moute (pronounced BAH-ah-MOO-tay) said he could understand the youthful skepticism, notwithstanding the living proof that one — if only one of a very large number — could make the leap from teenage African camper to N.B.A. millionaire and missionary.

Mbah a Moute, a Cameroonian rookie with the Milwaukee Bucks last season, was back in Africa last week as the first alumnus of the camp, which is part of the N.B.A.’s Basketball Without Borders program, to return to it as an N.B.A. player and counselor.

“The kids here are not like Americans because to them the N.B.A. is so far away,” said Mbah a Moute, a 6-foot-8 forward. “I remember that feeling. Even though some Africans have made it, you can’t actually grasp the possibility until you leave the continent.” 

The impact of Luc's interaction with campers were palpable.

“I’ve been in any number of situations where basketball players and other athletes are talking to teenagers, and Luc, as much as anyone I’ve seen, had those kids sitting at the edge of their seats,” said Richard Lapchick, a civil rights activist and longtime sports watchdog, who joined the N.B.A. group in Johannesburg. “It’s an old phrase, I know, but when he got up, you could hear a pin drop.”

Lapchick said Mbah a Moute’s speech to the campers was firm: basketball should not be seen by them solely as a path to a pot of gold but as a means of expanding the mind. That night, Mbah a Moute told Lapchick he had been rehearsing all summer. When he finished, the campers rewarded their most successful alumnus with a standing ovation.

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Bringing the NBA a Little Closer to Africa (NY Times, Sept. 9, 2009)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/sports/basketball/09nba.html