Due to the timing of a February trade with Sacramento, Alvin Gentry spent only the final 7 1/2 weeks of the 2016-17 season coaching DeMarcus Cousins, but New Orleans’ third-year head coach will now get to spend additional time with the three-time All-Star this summer. As part of the 15th edition of Basketball Without Borders Africa, Gentry and Cousins will travel to Johannesburg, South Africa in July, with the Pelicans big man expected to play in an Aug. 5 exhibition game. The game will be held at the Ticketpro Dome and is the second of its kind on the African continent.
“It’s become a trip where a lot of prominent NBA players like to go on it and experience it, to see Johannesburg and to see Africa,” said Gentry on Monday afternoon, during a Boys & Girls Club event in Covington. “They also go to give something back by playing in the game. The last one was a great game, with Chris Paul in it and a lot of great players like that. So we’re looking to have a repeat of that and it’s going to be really good.”
The summer trip will actually be Gentry’s second visit to South Africa, but his first since apartheid was abolished in that nation in 1994. Cousins has also participated in previous overseas trips, having gone to Israel with then-Kings teammate Omri Casspi, the first Israeli-born player to reach the NBA.
“I did the very first one, even before it was called Basketball Without Borders,” Gentry said of the NBA’s trips to Africa. “I also did one to Rio (in Brazil), right before the Olympics, after they had just gotten the Olympic bid.
“(Cousins and I) talked about the South Africa trip a little bit, but he’s just excited to have the opportunity to go. Everyone is feeling like the next big wave of players is probably going to be from Africa. What they’ve done there is started building academies and teaching kids the fundamentals of the game very early. I think you’re going to see more of those guys develop into really good players.”
Although basketball is a significant part of the trip, Gentry noted that his children are also coming on the trip, to gain the experience of seeing another part of the world.
“I’m interested to see the country again – apartheid hadn’t even been lifted yet the last time I was there,” Gentry said. “So I’m interested to see South Africa now, and the growth of basketball there. And I’m taking my kids along. It’s a great trip for them to see that part of the world and see another culture."