Jordan Nwora couldn’t get on the connecting flight just yet. By the time the plane landed in Buffalo, it would be too late. The deadline would pass.
So Nwora and his parents huddled up in Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport during a layover from Los Angeles and finalized whether Nwora was going to keep his name in the NBA draft or return to Louisville for his junior year.
The family had discussed the decision on the first leg of the flight and still hadn’t come to a conclusion. But due to the time difference between Chicago and Buffalo, they couldn’t wait until they arrived home in Western New York.
“We had to decide there,” Nwora said.
Nwora had a strong sophomore season at Louisville, but a calf injury kept him out of the NBA draft combine in May. He wasn’t able to work out for NBA teams until his pro day in Santa Barbara, California, right before the withdrawal deadline.
The family went back and forth all day, mulling the pros and cons. They spoke with Louisville coach Chris Mack and the Cardinals’ staff. They spoke with Nwora’s agent, Bill Duffy of BDA Sports Management. They prayed about the decision.
“We weren’t sure when we got on the flight,” Nwora’s father, Alex, said.
During that layover at O’Hare, Nwora made his final decision: He was returning to Louisville for another season.
“I got this good with Coach Mack; I can get better with him,” Nwora told his parents that day.
Nwora was right.
Eight months later, the 6-foot-8 forward is playing the best basketball of his career and carrying a Louisville team that has flirted with No. 1 ranking at times this season, with Nwora averaging 20.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.
Nwora might be eyeing the NBA draft, but he also has his sights on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as a member of the Nigeria national basketball team. For Nwora, there is a lot more on the horizon.
Over the years, however, there were multiple times that things looked bleak. Nwora could have very easily been playing somewhere else besides Louisville in 2020.
Nwora attributes his physical style of play and jump shot to training with older players of the Nigeria national basketball team. Wang He/Getty Images
It started back in Nwora’s early high school years. Living in Buffalo, Nwora wasn’t highly touted when he first began playing at The Park School. He split his time between basketball and football before deciding to focus on the hardwood, and he was admittedly out of shape as a high schooler. Before his junior year at Park, Nwora went to his father — the longtime men’s head basketball coach for Erie Community College as well as the Nigeria national basketball team — and told him he wanted to work out with the junior college team.
Alex Nwora was hesitant. His son had done some weightlifting and conditioning with the Erie players in the past, but he hadn’t gone through a scrimmage or even a pickup game. Plus, the workouts started at 6 a.m. What high schooler wants to wake up so early to play against a bunch of players four or five years older than him?
Alex eventually gave in.
“I went to wake him up,” Alex said on the morning after his son’s plea. “He was downstairs waiting for me.”
So Jordan and his father went for a morning workout with the Erie players — and Alex also had brought some of the players he coached on the Nigeria national basketball team. He wasn’t going to make things easy for Jordan.
“They went at him really hard,” Alex said. “I wasn’t calling fouls. I didn’t stop. I said, ‘If you quit, you can’t come back.’ He fought through it all game. He started getting up in the morning every day. That’s when I knew he was serious. I told my players to play him as hard as you can, and he took it. That shows the resilience, how much he wanted it.”
Jordan became a staple at Erie workouts over the next two years of high school, going with his father to the 6 a.m. sessions and getting dropped off at high school a few hours later. He credits those pickup games — physical battles against players several years older — for the growth of his perimeter shot from a young age.
“I think that’s how I developed my shot,” Nwora said. “I could never drive into the lane. I had to shoot my way out of it … I know that I wouldn’t play how I do without it. It wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t grow up around that. But there were days I didn’t want to go. It ended up working out.”