Would the pipeline of raw talent from the vast continent finally be turned wide open? Would a basketball world that has grown increasingly smaller with players from all over the globe at long last get a boost from Africa? Would the 21st century version of Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria) or Dikembe Mutombo (Democratic Republic of Congo) ultimately step forward?

Now in its fifth year at the American International School of Johannesburg, Basketball without Borders has produced more stability than stars, but continues to lay the foundation that could dramatically lift African basketball in the years to come.

"We're doing it from the bottom up," said Cleveland Cavaliers assistant general manager Lance Blanks, a camp director. "As things have developed over the five years we've been coming, from a basketball standpoint the focus has become more and more on the kids. Of course, the kids have always been the main goal off the court."

The program, a basketball instructional camp for young players that utilizes sport as a vehicle to influence positive social change, features dozens of current and former players and NBA team personnel as coaches for 100 players (19 and under) from 21 different African countries. The focus of the daily community outreach effort is education, health-related issues with a focus on HIV/AIDS advocacy and grassroots basketball development.

The difficulty in raising the level of African basketball as a whole is in the sheer size of the continent with so many different countries, where the governing bodies of the sport have historically taken an insular view rather than cooperating.

"To get the basketball to reach its full potential and where it could be, the work has to be done from the top down," said Blanks. "That can be a problem. Things have always been fine when we have all of the coaches here at the camp and we conduct coaching clinics and share the knowledge and techniques. Everyone gets along. There is a sharing of ideas, a real sense of pulling together.

"The problem is that when they go back home, everyone seems only concerned again about their own players and their own interest. I can understand that from the standpoint that you go back home and maybe worry about where you're going to get water and electricity in many cases. I understand that basketball takes a backseat."

Basketball without Borders Africa, to date, has produced one NBA player, 6-11 Mouhamed Sene, signed last season by the Seattle SuperSonics. The 21-year-old from Senegal appeared in 28 games for the Sonics.

"That's out of 400 kids in our first four years," Blanks said. "Look at that 1 in 400 ratio and it's probably a good bit better than it is for American kids to reach the NBA.

"But that's not really the intent of the program. It's to help lift up as many of these kids as we can, to help get them education, to improve the overall quality of their lives and, as a result, the lives of their families."

Nearly 50 participants of the Basketball without Borders program in Africa have earned scholarships to American colleges and universities.

"Drafting kids in the first round to the NBA is not the reason we're here," said Houston Rockets scout Brent Johnson. "That's got to be an eventual by-product of everything else we do.

"Once you see all the poverty here, knowing that you can't help everybody, but realizing that you can help one or two or three or 20 or 30..that's a start. I've seen some of the guys who have gotten scholarships and it's really awesome and makes me feel really good. When you see people who are really experiencing some serious poverty and they can walk around and smile, that just gives me an unbelievable, incredible will to just live better and live more. The NBA will eventually get players when these people get better lives."

Some teams may have scaled back on their expectations from the talent pool in Africa. The first several camps in Johannesburg had participants from nearly 20 different franchises. This year there are 11 teams represented.

"You can't expect an instant payoff," said camp director and San Antonio Spurs general manager R.C. Buford, whose team has used international talent stay ahead of the curve and win four NBA championships. "It's an American trait -- instant gratification.

"In Africa, this has to be a long-term commitment, a long-term view of the situation. People might have thought of this as a place where you could mine the talent. I think of it as there's something to grow here. We're seeing the development."

One on hand, there's a player in camp who learned to play basketball barefooted. He stepped into his first pair of basketball shoes just eight months ago. On the other hand, the camp's elite level is already paying great dividends. In 2004, there were just four players from Basketball Without Borders who took part in the African Championships. In 2007, that number has swelled to 20.

"Look at Angola. Look at Senegal," said Buford. "These are programs that are starting to show that they can compete on a world level. They're getting results. That means we're getting results. I believe in this program. It's going to take time. But if you're patient, it's going to happen in Africa."