The Ginormous 13-Year-Old Who Might Be the NBA’s Next Unicorn
Mohamed Dabone is one of the most exciting basketball prospects in the world—and he just became a teenager
- NBA teams are in a constant search for the next international superstar with unique athletic gifts.
- Mohamed Dabone, a 6-foot-9, thirteen year old from Burkina Faso, is drawing comparisons to Antetokounmpo and Wembanyama.
- Questions about Dabone’s age have surfaced as he prepares to join Barcelona’s senior team and become eligible for the 2030 NBA draft.
The only thing NBA teams spend more time doing than playing basketball games is hunting for unicorns.
In the modern game, which has become overrun by monstrously tall super-athletes who can swish 3-pointers as easily as they throw down dunks, every franchise is searching far and wide for the next big thing.
Lately, the eyes of the basketball world have settled on a gigantic teenager from the West African nation of Burkina Faso. He’s nearly 7 feet tall. He can soar through the air. And he’ll soon be playing on the senior team for one of Europe’s top clubs.
He’s also 13 years old.
Mohamed Dabone, officially listed at 6-foot-9 and born in 2011, will be promoted to Barcelona’s senior team when preseason training opens. He already has a highlight reel of slams and blocks that have drawn comparisons to Giannis Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama, the international superstars who have recently turned the NBA on its head.
“Mohamed Dabone’s impressive combination of explosiveness, skill and defensive versatility were on full display,” NBA draft analyst Jonathan Givony wrote on X after Dabone averaged a dozen points and 7.3 rebounds in May’s EuroLeague Next Gen Finals.
Then came the most stunning detail: “[He] won’t be NBA draft-eligible until 2030.”
In the world of high-level athletic prospects—in which teams are scouring every corner of the globe for younger and younger potential stars—there is inevitably a question about Dabone’s listed age. The official website of Next Gen EuroLeague says he won’t turn 14 until October of this year, but prospects across sports have been known to play under incorrectly listed ages—wittingly or unwittingly—in a way that boosts their perceived potential.
A spokesperson for the International Basketball Federation, which oversees global international competitions such as the World Cup and the Olympics, wouldn’t comment on Dabone’s age, noting that he hasn’t participated in FIBA events.
What is certain is that Dabone reflects a basketball world that has changed and expanded rapidly in recent years. When the Milwaukee Bucks selected an 18-year-old Antetokounmpo with the 15th pick in 2013, many fans were puzzled that a team would take a chance on a faraway prospect whose highlight reels amounted to some grainy footage from the Greek league.
Now that Antetokounmpo is a multi-time MVP and NBA champion—just part of a foreign invasion that includes Nikola Jokic and Wembanyama—every NBA team is searching for the next version of the “Greek Freak.”
Dabone, who has spent his young basketball life dominating older players, seems like a good place to start. In the final of the 2024 under-16 La Ortava tournament, he ran roughshod against Barcelona’s arch-rival Real Madrid, putting up 31 points and 19 rebounds against players many years older.
And if his age is a matter of some doubt, Dabone has one thing going for him: a promising nickname.
As his highlight reels get shared across the basketball internet, he’s already been dubbed “Wemby Antetokounmpo.”