Remember the name Mohamed Dabone. He will not be a part of next year’s NBA Draft, no matter what happens – in fact, it will be several years down the road. But on current evidence of his physical profile alone, it looks as though his time will one day come.
With a reported birthdate of 21st October 2011, Dabone is still only 13 years old. His NBA career, if there is to be one, is still several years away. But with his physical profile, he looks as though he could be selected in the NBA Draft tomorrow. His is a body built for basketball.
13 Going On 30
Dabone is a native of Burkina Faso and currently a member of the Barcelona talent factory in Spain. Barcelona routinely plays home to some of the world’s best non-American prospects, and like all prestige European clubs has multiple levels of youth and reserve team basketball for youngsters to work through. But Dabone is far ahead of the usual development arc.
Several steps ahead of the curve – because his body is suitably developed to allow it – Dabone has already been playing at the Under-19 level. At the most recent incarnation of the prestigious Euroleague Basketball Next Generation Tournament, he impressed with averages of 12.0 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.
For some context, at the 2021-22 installment of the same tournament, Pacome Dadiet – a 2024 first-round draft pick, currently of the New York Knicks – averaged 13.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game. But Dadiet was 16 at the time, not 13. And even he was on the younger side than what is usual.
Dabone’s Age Discrepancy
Of course, a large part of the allure of Dabone requires him actually being only 13 years old.
Conclusive evidence of any official documentation to prove his age one way or the other is not something available to the outsider. Nor is it something that would normally be sought of a prospect. However, the fire of doubt thrown up by the eye test – after all, Dabone does not look 13 – has had fuel poured on it by the fact that a different profile of Dabone exists, from 2024, on FIBA’s own official 3×3 website, which lists Dabone as being 16 years old, and from the neighbouring country of Togo.
Players having years taken off their age in order to improve their viability in the NBA Draft is certainly not unheard of, and actually worked on at least one occasion. In the 2011 NBA Draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves made the much-ridiculed decision to select a 22-year-old Congolese-Qatari player named Targuy Ngombo with a late second-round, only to later discover he was 27 years old and called Tanguy. The conflicting information regarding Dabone’s age discrepancy is merely circumstantial, but one would be remiss not to remember the time that it mattered.
Dabone’s Early Size Advantage
For now, unless anything is ever proven otherwise, Dabone’s reported age of 13 must be taken as fact. And as a 13-year-old, his sheer size and skill level are striking.
The risk in being so physically dominant so early lies in excessive reliance on that size advantage. When the advantage is eventually mitigated through the ageing process and the increased quality of the opposition, the skill level will have to meet the challenge, and if Dabone overly relies on his physical profile in lieu of developing his skills, touch, footwork, hands and finishing ability, he might plateau early.
Nevertheless, by getting to this size so early, Dabone will have the head start on learning how to play like it. Already with some rim protection instincts and offensive skill beyond just catching and finishing – including a fledgling jump shot – early indications are that Dabone has skill beyond being a mere physical specimen. And at such a young age, there is plenty of time for that base level to develop further.
The name Mohamed Dabone will therefore be heard in NBA circles again in future years. Even if it is not yet clear which ones.
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