On sports, inspiration and challenge: An interview with Sitapha Savané – NBA 2K24

As part of the Arucas Gaming Fest we had the pleasure of sitting down with Liga ACB basketball league legendary center and CB Gran Canaria President Sitapha Savané at the team’s stadium. In the interview, we talked mostly about sports and inspiration, including Savané’s own and very special life story, the better use of technology and video games, or how real-world players can learn from digital games and simulators.
[Mr. Savané was zo vriendelijk om Gamereactor bij te wonen aan de vooravond van een van Granca’s grootste ontmoetingen dit seizoen]

★ GR: So, first of all, what do you think of tomorrow’s game? I have to ask you that first of all, because I can feel the excitement….

Savané: There’s excitement, but you know, we’re confident. We’re playing at home. We will have our crowd here. They’re going to push us. We are a very strong team at home, but at the same time we have a lot of respect for our opponents tomorrow, the Lenovo-Tenerife team.

They are our regional rivals, so those games are very special for the public, for the players. So we just want to have a big basketball party to celebrate two great teams and two great clubs doing a great job representing the Canary Islands worldwide.

★ We’re going to talk about sports and young people, but to inspire them and for those who may not know about your story – and I know we could talk about your story for hours, right?- But tell us something about your experience of going from Senegal to the U.S. and then coming to Spain and playing for the ACB.

Well, I always said I was very lucky, and my mother always said, “You’re not lucky. You’ve had opportunities, and then you work hard to make the most of them.”

I was born and raised in Senegal in a middle-class family, but I had the special thing that my father and my mother were politicians and UN officials. So I was lucky to have these great opportunities when I was young, one of which was later to live abroad for a while.

I lived in Geneva, then I moved to New York with my mother who was there with the United Nations. This was around the time I started playing basketball seriously. So going to the U.S. gave me a great opportunity to be in the best country, we can say, for basketball at that time, developing a lot, went to college there, played in the NCAA, the collegiate tournaments there.

“I always said I was lucky, and my mom always said, ‘You’re not.’ You had opportunities, and then you worked hard to make the most of them'”

And once that was done, I got the chance to go pro. It didn’t work out with the NBA, but I had a chance to get into the Spanish league. I started here in the second division in a team in Menorca, a small team. Came in, unknown guy, and we had a really good season, and I was one of the standout players.

And from there it was basically one step after another. And what I initially thought would be a short career of two, three years playing in Europe, having fun, hanging out in Spain and the Mediterranean, meeting girls and a new life, turned out to be an 18-year career here in Spain.
★ And with that story in your pocket, you can inspire young students and people, men and women who are starting with sports and basketball. So, how important do you think sports education is for young people, and then for them to grow up into adults, regardless of profession?

To me, it’s huge. And you know, a club like ours, for example, has a great youth program. We have almost a thousand kids involved in the club. And I always tell them that sports, especially team sports, teaches young kids so many values. And it teaches you while you’re playing, which to me is the best way to learn. Because you really think you’re playing, but at the same time you get tons of values from teamwork, being resilient, learning to lose and get back up and working harder to get better.

And those are all qualities that I later, as team president of a club, look for in all of my employees. Being hardworking, having the discipline to really practice to get better, and always having the willingness to improve.

★ Speaking of sports, let’s talk about sports and its digital version. I know you’re familiar with NBA 2K, and here for the Arucas Gaming Fest we’re having a tournament where players can play both the digital version and the real sport, and then we’ll choose a [gecombineerde] champion. So what do you think about how video games can help users understand basketball and get closer to basketball? And vice versa, people who might just like sports but can now compete and participate in digital events.

I think your event has a great concept, because really mixing the two is the most important part for me. I mean, before, of course, it was just street basketball, you know, on the courts. Now you have the digital side, the whole gaming side. Putting the two together makes it really complementary.

“Even in playing [basket] by my son in the real world, I have noticed improvements, which I link to the fact that he is playing 2K”

I always think of the example of my own son, who loves gaming. And he loves FIFA, which he told me will now no longer be called FIFA. So I’m already aware of that. And 2K. And he plays basketball on one of our youth teams. And as a parent, it’s weird for me because, you know, I’m an ex-player. I don’t want to be the father who teaches him more than the coach, obsessed. But I also want him to learn about the game and know the game.

I’m old school, so I want him to know the Magic Johnsons, the Michael Jordans and everything. And he learned all that with 2K, even before I got to it. And he has, for example, with Michael Jordan, where you can do his whole career. And he learned about “The Flu Game” and all these different moments of Michael. I’m a big fan of Michael Jordan. So I almost had a tear in my eye the day I realized that he taught all of this. And I didn’t even have to come and teach him that. And even in his play in the real world, I’ve noticed improvements, which I link to the fact that he’s playing 2K.

Because on the tactical side, you like so many things that while you’re playing, you see it. And he also plays in the real world. So he’s got it figured out. And I’ve seen some improvement in his game. And I asked him, “How did you learn this in practice?” He says, “Well, some of this stuff, yeah. But when I play 2K and I see this and it sticks in my head, I try it at practice.” And for me that’s the best, you know, because sometimes people think, just gaming, it’s bad for the kids. They’re sitting around playing. I’m like: “No, you can mix the two. And one side teaches the other”. His love for basketball led him to 2K. And he plays 2K, he’s now helping him improve and learn more about the basketball part.

★ Do you also get a tear in your eye when he hits you?

That’s the part. [Lacht] It’s another tear. It’s a difficult moment for a father. You’re like: “My son is 10. How can a 10-year-old kid beat me at anything?” So I’m super competitive. And, you know, it’s always like sometimes my wife catches me when the kid is at school. I’m like: “Hon, I’m going to the office a little later today. I need to put in an hour now to improve”. I’m looking up tutorials on YouTube to improve so I can beat it [lacht].

And it also created a special bond between us, even as father and son. You know, we have our special thing. He has so many special bonds with his mother. So now I also have my special bond with him on basketball, on the court and also when we play 2K.
★ And you mentioned how video games can be perceived by people, by parents. And here at this event, we also care a little bit about good use of both technologies or best practices, both technology and video games. So, what do you think about that, about, teaching parents and maybe teachers for them to convey these to kids?

I think it’s huge. And, you know, with change often comes fear. And initially something new… I mean, now we have AI, and we don’t know where it’s going. And we have a lot of debates about, it could be great or it could be extremely dangerous.

“[Net als AI, zoals het splitsen van het atoom] gaming can be like wine: the key are best practices and to spread them around”

I’m like, splitting the atom, it’s something that can destroy, with weapons, or give energy and electricity. I see it the same way here, where there’s tremendous potential in gaming. And that’s something that should definitely be pushed forward. But the key is what you mentioned, best practices. And those really need to be disseminated. So, parents, teachers, we as a society know how to make the best use of this.

Like the example I used with my son. So it’s a positive effect because we also know, like so many things in this world. It can be, you know, I love wine. And a person who loves wine, it can be great to taste wine and drink wine. But of course, if you go too far, it’s dangerous. So it’s the same for everything. I love that your event really focuses on that and gives parents, teachers and society as a whole the tools to get the best out of gaming.

★ That’s a very nice comparison you make there. It’s my first time in Gran Canaria. So, from your experience, what can you tell us? What can you recommend people to visit and learn from Gran Canaria in terms of the cultural and sports offerings you have here?

Well, I consider myself extremely lucky, as I said before, because I was born in a great country, Senegal. I was able to live in different countries in Europe. I was in the United States, where I studied and lived. And I always managed to get the best out of every place I lived. And after being in all those places, I chose to make Gran Canaria my hometown.

So that should tell you something. If you said forget New York, forget Dakar, forget Paris. I think it’s a beautiful place. People always see the weather first. It’s something obvious. But the weather has a huge effect on your mood, if you are allowed, and your life in general.

People are very open. There are places nowadays where, as a black man from Africa, I can go to a place and feel certain reactions or not. Here I have had very positive experiences.

On the sports side, as I said, the weather allows it. But there is a general fondness for sports. You have the opportunity to play tons of different sports. There’s a lot of cultural offerings. There’s a reason why it’s one of the biggest tourist places in the world. I think you come here and it’s not just the beach, but you can have a lot of different options. Like right now, tomorrow when it’s an overcast day, you have a huge basketball game of two teams from the Canary Islands. One of them has been champion of the BCL in Europe. We have been champions of the Euro Cup. We now have the soccer team, UD Las Palmas, which is the first division in the Spanish LaLiga. As I said, at the cultural level, we have the theaters, we have the auditorium.

It’s really a beautiful place. And there’s a reason why I called it my second home.
★ That sounds absolutely fantastic. So thank you so much for your time and good luck with the contest tomorrow.

Appreciate it and good luck with the rest of the event.