Dr. Ernest Ojeleye laughs when asked about the names of his three children. Each is as long as a psalm and starts with the name Jesus.
“My wife,” he explains. “She has created them.”
The youngest, Semi, goes by a shortened version of Jesusemilore Talodabijesu Ojeleye.
“It means Jesus’ Gift to Me,” said Joy Ojeleye who views everything about Semi as a treasure from above.
His birth in December 1994 came at a pivotal time for the family, which had reunited a year earlier. Ernest left his job as a doctor in a Nigerian state hospital and gambled on a dream — that he could someday practice medicine in the United States. His own parents had made this move. They earned doctorates in education at American universities while Ernest and his five younger siblings moved in with grandparents in Nigeria. So he knew the dream was very real.
He moved in with a brother in Lawrence, Kansas, and began a long, near-defeating struggle to get accepted into a residency program. What he thought would be a three-month separation from his wife, daughter Tomi and son Victor stretched into four penniless years.
So by the time Semi was born, Joy again turned to her faith for an explanation of the happiness returning to her life.
“With everything we’ve been through as a family, with the four years I haven’t been able to see my husband, everything we’ve been through, this is a very unique gift from God,” she said. “From the very first day I found out I was pregnant with Semi ’til now, his life has been a tremendous gift to me, to his father, to his siblings, to so many other people.”
Ernest’s gamble eventually took shape as a family practice in Ottawa, Kansas, roughly 30 miles south of Lawrence. Semi’s basketball dream is an ongoing marvel. State champion in high school, state scoring champion, blue chip recruit who had Mike Krzyzewski in his living room and, after things didn’t work at Duke, Larry Brown and his entire staff on an express visit from SMU.
That path took Joy to the Garden on April 15 to attend her son’s NBA playoff debut with the Celtics. Just as the family never would have left Nigeria if Ernest didn’t take a risk, Semi had succeeded thanks to a brave decision, too. He chose to leave Duke halfway through his sophomore year, believing that to stay would have killed his chance at the NBA.
“He would have toiled away in obscurity,” said Joy. “He would have slaved away, and the dream would have been completely dead. Dead and forgotten. Another one who played in high school, went to college. Society would have just thought he never worked hard enough.”
Krzyzewski fanned Semi’s resolve, too. Semi’s brother Victor said the Duke coach, irritated following multiple inquiries from the family about their son’s role, lashed out when Semi gave him the news.
“What I will say about that day is that (Krzyzewski) told Semi he was making a mistake,” said Victor Ojeleye.
The family knew better.
“I see that he’s actually better than me,” said Ernest. “He has a lot of qualities that are better than my qualities. He’s a lot like my wife, with the tenacity and the character. I went through hard times, yes, but so did he.”
Life lessons
Ernest accompanied Victor for the first day of a high school basketball camp at the University of Kansas one summer. Upon reaching the outdoor complex, Ernest gestured toward a nearby tennis court and said he slept there one night.
He had just been kicked out of his brother Larry’s house.
The brothers clashed. Ernest was struggling to pass the ECFMG (Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates) with the hope of landing a residency at the KU Medical Center, and had been living by the good will of his brother, then a pharmacy student.
He lacked money and briefly a home, but Ernest had his bible. A conversation with him now invariably leads back to his strong religious belief, and that’s what gave him strength at the tennis court that night. Using the bible as a pillow, Ernest prayed and slept.
He was saved by friends at the Mustard Seeds Church, where a pastor named Paul Tayler took him in for 11⁄2 years, before Ernest moved in with another family in the parish.
This period in Ernest’s life produced an archive of experiences. Later, as Tomi, Victor and, by nine years the youngest, Semi, matured, Ernest shared stories of overcoming hardship, and scrimping for money.
“He has new stories every day, and every time I hear him it helps me to push through whatever I’m pushing through,” said Semi. “Things like that let me know that things in life will be hard, but seeing where he is now, it’s all worth it.”
Ernest’s family practice in Ottawa became a monument to surviving four years of hardship — the amount of time it took for him to pass the test.
And the ECFMG exam had become a burden. The passing grade was 85, and Ernest kept falling short, the first attempt with a 73 and then a 75. He called home upon receiving the second test result.
“I remember him calling me that day, and he said as soon as I get enough money I’m coming back home,” said Joy. “Then I told him no. You’re not coming home. You stay there, because God is going to do it. I trust my God, he will do it. If he got you out of this country — Nigeria — and took you all the way there, no matter how hard it is, stick with it. Please. We will be reunited when God’s time is right.
“The (next) time he was in the 90th percentile. I remember when he called — that was one of the greatest, happiest days.”
Many years later Ernest and Joy had another of those days, when Semi chose Duke.
“Just to mention that he was going to Duke — that meant a lot to us,” said Ernest. “I think we can still look at Duke as being part of the reason he’s in the NBA. Even with the hardship he went through there.”
A year-and-a-half later Ernest was digesting the news from Semi’s visit to Krzyzewski’s office, and the way he told Semi he was making a mistake.
The heated exchange wasn’t unlike Ernest’s own departure from his brother Larry’s house.
Joy, who got a determined call from Ernest the night he walked out, said, “He told his brother, You know what? It’s the grace of God that brought me here, God brought me to America. I didn’t come here for myself. And if God brought me here, he’s going to make a way for me, even if you say you’re not going to support me and you throw me out. God will make a way for me.
“And his brother said, you get out of my house, and we’ll see if God is going to take care of you.”
Bittersweet experience
Semi still talks in positive terms about his experience at Duke.
“Just needed a fresh start,” he said. “It wasn’t that I didn’t think it was a good place. It was a great place — that’s why I went there. But for me, I got the opportunity to grow as a player and person and start over.”
His parents, though, walked away angry from their encounters with Krzyzewski and his staff.
The ultimate insult for Ernest came in the form of a call from Duke assistant Nate James once Semi left the program. According to Ernest, James made the call to denigrate his son.
“First he said the only way Semi was going to play at Duke was if someone else got hurt,” said Ernest. “Then he said Semi didn’t work on his game, or do what they told him to do. He didn’t ask the coaches what he had to do to get better.
“I said no, this person you are talking about is not my child,” said Ernest. “I was really hot about this, but then I told him, ‘Thanks for the privilege.’ But it was really annoying for them to try and destroy my son’s character. Very wicked, actually.”
The family had already been rocked by an earlier meeting between Joy, Victor and Krzyzewski. Joy and Ernest had originally asked for a meeting with the coach after Semi’s freshman year. When they raised concerns about his lack of playing time, and what it meant for his chances of cracking the rotation in another year, Krzyzewski attempted to allay their fears.
“He said your son is an amazing person,” said Joy. “On the court and off the court. He’s going to play. Don’t worry. He’ll be fine. He even texted me and said Semi is going to do great, he’s going to break out. That helps me believe what my son told me, because he said I believe him.”
When the following season started with Semi in a similar role, Ernest tried reaching Krzyzewski again, to no avail. So the family asked for a second meeting, this time with Victor accompanying his mother to Durham.
According to Joy, a very different Coach K met them in his office. She said the coach ignited when asked about Semi’s prospects and jumped out of his chair. A terrified Joy knelt in front of the enraged coach.
“He shouted at me. He said, ‘Am I lying, Am I lying?’ Just like that,” she said. “My oldest son said, ‘Coach, she didn’t say you were lying, she was only asking a question.’
“I had tears streaming down my cheeks, and I said, ‘Coach, you’re way up there and I’m down here. That’s why I kneeled down and said forgive me. I didn’t say you were lying. I would never say that.’ Victor, for the first time, he felt so humiliated, so bad and ashamed I was treated like that. It’s OK. I just didn’t want him to feel like I was being rude to him. I just wanted to ask the question. Is there anything my son needs to do and achieve the privilege to play? Because if you never play, nobody sees your talent. And he tells me he does everything you tell him to do, so if you’re working hard behind the scenes, please, even if it’s five minutes, let him play.
“So when I sat down, he said, ‘You’re OK, you’re OK, that’s OK, that’s OK, you haven’t done anything wrong.’ And he went back and sat in his chair. I said ‘I’m sorry,’ and he said, ‘You don’t have anything to be sorry about. You’re fine.’ ”
Semi withdrew from the program two weeks later, though Joy is uncertain of whether her encounter with Krzyzewski influenced the decision.
Semi shook his head when asked about his parents’ encounters with the program.
“That’s in the past — doesn’t matter, don’t want to get into that,” he said.
An attempt to reach Krzyzewski and James for comment resulted in the following statement from Jon Jackson, Duke’s senior associate athletic director of external affairs:
“While we are not going to comment on specific conversations between parents and members of our coaching staff, we understand that transfer situations are sometimes emotional. Our entire Duke Basketball staff enjoyed Semi Ojeleye’s year-and-a-half as a member of our program, and since granting him his full release, we have followed his career as he progressed into the professional player our staff envisioned him to be. We wish him nothing but the best.”
He ain’t heavy
Victor was at work the night Semi made his first NBA start, sent in with the task of guarding Giannis Antetokounmpo in Game 5, and then the final two games of the Celtics’ first round win over Milwaukee as well. All of the qualities Semi developed under Larry Brown at SMU — the scoring ability that led to AAC player of the year and tournament MVP honors in 2017, the rare defensive versatility –— accelerated as a Celtics rookie as injuries further up the bench created opportunities.
“Wow,” Victor said in a text upon hearing the news. “So happy for him.”
Victor was there in every way for Semi once he started the pre-draft process, helping his brother train in the midst of approximately 20 pre-draft workouts. Such is the pace of life for a projected second-round draft pick.
When Semi flew to Chicago for the NBA draft combine, Victor was already on site. He was studying for a master’s degree at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and set up his apartment for Semi’s needs in between workouts.
Semi had got in the habit at SMU of icing down in a bathtub, so while he was at the combine Victor made multiple ice runs to a CVS and filled up his tub. Semi would slide in, ice up to his waist, recover, and then go sleep at his hotel. Victor kept a calendar of Semi’s meetings with agents, and put his business background to use wherever possible.
That NBA dream may have dimmed during Semi’s time at Duke, but it started to gleam at SMU. Brown walked into the Ojeleye home with his entire staff in tow and claimed to know what he had in Semi without an additional minute on the floor.
Brown left SMU during Semi’s transfer year due to recruitment violations, but the coach’s influence carried on through his replacement, Tim Jankovich.
Semi shot 42.4 percent from 3-point range at SMU and, combined with his lateral quickness, cast himself in the 3-and-D prototype that NBA teams so value now. His biggest moment came in Game 7 against the Bucks. He formed a wall between Antetokounmpo and the basket and got physical. An uncomfortable Antetokounmpo shot 7-for-17 under the rookie’s pressure.
Brown appeared to see this unfolding last summer when he said, “I’m interested in what we’re going to be hearing about this kid in a couple of months. People are going to tell me I sold them short on who he is.”
Looking back, Joy would never accuse Brown of that. Instead, she believes that after a brief but painful detour in Semi’s career, Brown was vital in the process that has made her son a Celtic.
“If he never believed in Semi, Semi never would have gone to SMU, and if Semi doesn’t go to SMU, he wouldn’t have been able to play the way Larry Brown wants his players to play,” she said. “How would Danny Ainge have seen him? It started with Larry Brown, and giving him the opportunity, just as Brad Stevens is doing now.
“Every day I pray for Brad Stevens now, just like I pray for Larry Brown, who saw the talent where nobody saw it.”
