When Carine Silatsa started playing basketball in Cameroon, there was just one women’s team in the nation. What makes her story even more unlikely is that there was just one court in her home city and, at first, she wasn’t considered for the local team. That rejection fueled the competitive fire within her, and it’s been burning ever since.
Last year, she played in the third league in Italy for Salerno, where her team went undefeated and she made such an impression that Roche Vendee’s coach brought her to play in the French first league. At 26 years old, she has a bronze AfroBasket medal to her name and many more goals to reach. She discussed all that and more with Swish Appeal. Some highlights from the talk include:
Why she wears number 23 for Cameroon:
I was having a new coach and that coach, I don’t know why, but he saw me as a LeBron James [of his team] and he told me, “You are gonna wear the 23.” For me, the number was just a number at that moment, so when he said that, I said, “Okay, I’m gonna wear it.” Sometimes we can see something more in numbers, you know? So people were really calling me LeBron James. I was like a LeBron James of Cameroon. And step by step, I started loving this number. And I love how he plays.
On how she was able to sign with a first-league team in France after playing in the third league in Italy:
I had a really great season in Italy, without any games lost. Before the end of my season there, this team in the First Division in France one day contacted me and told me that they wanted me for the next season. The fact is that the coach of my current team likes players who fight on the court and when he saw me playing, he said, “I want this player. I want someone who can fight. I want someone who has a lot of energy. This girl has what I want.”
A special thank you to Kuki and Jelena of Dagger Basket for arranging the interview.
