The most exciting part of the entire debut actually came postgame when Okafor was asked by reporters what grade he would give himself on his performance that night.
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“It’s just taking your time”, said Sixers assistant Billy Lange, who is coaching the summer league team.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Okafor has been making a majority of his free-throws at practice but for some reason it is not translating into success during live games.
While the 19-year-old center out of Duke is a superior talent, the brakes need to be pumped on these sky-high expectations that are being placed on his shoulders.
Okafor, who won the 2015 NCAA Championship with Duke, was projected to go second in the draft. Yes, the talent was all there, but Okafor was joining a team that already had taken big man in the top five of the last two drafts and were desperate for players at literally every other position.
By night’s end, Okafor finished 5 of 12 shooting and is averaging 16.2 points and nine rebounds per game, two games into the first Summer League session after signing his rookie contract on Tuesday.
While the numbers were impressive, it was also the way in which Okafor got his buckets that had to make Sixers fans perk up in their seats. In the Sixer’ loss against the San Antonio Spurs, Okafor recorded a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds. The Turkish import pulled down 14 rebounds and scored 11 points, while also blocking three shots.
Okafor started off slow but picked up his game quickly.
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Now that the Sixers new big man is feeling more comfortable each day as a professional, it remains to be seen what kind of impact he can have when the regular season begins in late October.
