Shake This Man's Hand, Put Your Family in Danger

Woo-hoo! You're raised in the poverty-stricken country of Senegal, but are felicitously tall and athletic and get drafted in the first round of the NBA draft! Guaranteed millions are yours! Can't wait to tell the neighbors! Wait...maybe not...

[Mouhamed Sene's family] began receiving threatening phone calls and break-ins after Sene entered the NBA.

Projected to earn more than $4 million in his first two years, Sene was becoming the target of jealous adversaries, and he moved his family three hours from Thies [Sene's hometown] into a more affluent neighborhood. With his first NBA check, Sene began building them a new home.

"I have a house away from those people," he said. "When your family is having problems you are having problems, too. That was my problem last year, but this year I don't have those problems."

This article, by the P-I's Gary Washburn, also contains the wonderful tidbit that Bob Hill wanted the Sonics' brass to hire an interpreter for Sene, Petro and Gelabale, but they wouldn't do it--with the result that Sene didn't understand Hill's instructions in practice. Maybe that's why the guy hasn't improved. Well done, Rick Sund--spend a draft pick and millions on a guy and then retard his progress because you don't want to pay some French illegal 10 bucks an hour to translate. It's like buying a Porsche and filling the gas tank with sugar.

Getty Images photo