The Sacred Side Of The Game: Insights From NBA Africa VP Gbemisola Abudu – Essence
The best way Gbemisola Abudu describes getting to her position is by divine orchestration.
As the NBA Africa Vice President and Country Head of NBA Nigeria, she says her love basketball dates back to her high school days.
“I fell in love with basketball when I was the hardcore Kobe Bryant fan,” she tells ESSENCE smilingly. “When I went to high school in California, I had no idea and no interest of pursuing a career in it. My plan was to become a lawyer I went to undergrad, worked at Disney, worked at a law firm. But during that time, there’s no way I can talk about life without saying, man plans, but God disposes.”
After spending time in college growing her love of basketball by attending games, making friends with the players, one urged her to think about a career in the space.
“I dismissed it,” she says. “I had my sights set elsewhere.”
After earning her MBA from Thunderbird University, Abudu found herself being recruited by the CEO of Louis Vuitton, North America and went to work on in the luxury space for some time.
After finding success there, she ultimately, then shortly after her beloved father passed away, prompting a huge shift in her life.
“He always wanted me to move back to Nigeria,” she tells ESSENCE.” And it was during that transition back to the country that my conversation with the NBA actually started. I just kept being pulled back, and this time, I allowed myself to go in that direction to at least learn more about what that could look like.”
She didn’t hop into the court immediately, as she leaned into her love of the luxury space by helming a private jet company, then going on to found her own company BMGA Enterprise Limited, an educational technology finishing school in Nigeria, and the BMGA Foundation, an NGO dedicated to fostering gender equity in the African business environment.
“I truly felt like, again, this was my calling,” a recurring statement. She says she’s able to completely fall in love with whatever she’s doing staying in tuned with her faith. Her God-led insight led her back to the NBA nearly ten years later when in 2022, she was tapped to lead the Africa-focused division of the organization. Again, it felt divinely ordered as the job was the perfect meld of threeof Abudu’s biggest passions, her home continent, business and basketball.
“It’s funny because I really felt like I knew exactly what I was going to do with my life, which was run my company and non-profit, but God made other plans,” she tells ESSENCE. “This position gave me the opportunity to do what I love, which IS business and development.”
She explains that the crux of her role to the grow the interest of the NBA in Nigeria an in Africa as a whole, but “it comes down to how are we allowing the youth in Nigeria, for example, to maximize their potential using basketball as a tool.”
For instance, the organization’s Junior NBA program allows children to learn and hone basketball talent but also tap into life skills they can use beyond the court.
She was also instrumental in brokering major relationships with global superstars, including playing a key role in orchestrating performances from Afrobeats stars Burna Boy, Tems and Rema at the 2023 NBA All-Star Game.
“That was the first time where they were put in a space like that–in a global sports space,” she says.
She adds: “For me, that’s what it’s all about. Answering the question of how do we create opportunities for the youth? We’ve all been put in very amazing, incredible positions. I have a personal mantra that I coined several years ago that I use as my compass in life, which is to live a rich and fulfilling life. When I say rich, we think I’m talking about monetary. No, I’m talking about an exciting, fun life where you’re willing to explore the incredible things life has to offer. It’s like the rich and fulfilling life that pleases God while impacting the world around me. For me, it’s like, if I’m doing anything that is not aligned with that, then I have no business doing it.”
