Salah Mejri plays basketball with the kind of intense, youthful passion you wouldn’t expect from a 30-year-old, and that isn’t a bad thing. His fire gives him confidence and the self-belief it takes to be the first player from Tunisia to play in the NBA. There was barely any organized basketball in his country as he grew up, which meant his first exposure to the game came when he was a teenager — already pushing seven feet — and without resources or fanfare.
That’s changed now, though, in part because of his success at the NBA and international level.