Boniface N'Dong (born 3 September 1977) is a Senegalese retired

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player and current coach. Currently, he is the assistant head coach of Denver Nuggets. Born in

M'Bour M'Bour or Mbour (; Wolof: ''Mbuur''), is a city in the Thiès Region of Senegal. It lies on the Petite Côte, approximately south of Dakar. It is home to a population of 284,189 (2023 census). The city's major industries are tourism, fishing a ...

, Senegal, he also holds

German citizenship German nationality law details the conditions by which an individual is a national of Germany. The primary law governing these requirements is the Nationality Act, which came into force on 1 January 1914. Germany is a member state of the Euro ...

Professional career

N'Dong had previously planned to enter the

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with an American college in hopes to gain major exposure. However, due to his weight being under what American colleges were looking for at the time, those plans were ultimately aborted. Instead, as a 21-year-old, N'Dong had to look into an alternative plan for increasing his talents due to Senegal's professional leagues performing less-than-par of expectations for him. During that time,

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Divisi ...

agent Amadou Fall recommended that he trained in

Dirk Nowitzki Dirk Werner Nowitzki (; born June 19, 1978) is a German former professional basketball player who is a special advisor for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Listed at , he is widely regarded as one of the great ...

's former club and improve his skills there. Sometime in early 1999, N'Dong signed with the SpVgg Rattelsdorf in Germany for one-and-a-half seasons of play there. After being undrafted in 1999, he continued training for the next three years in the TSV Tröster Breitengüßbach to further improve his game. In 2003, he would finally improve his skills to play in the

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the German basketball league system, highest level Sports league, league of professional club basketball in German ...

professional league with the TSK uniVersa Bamberg. After playing a season there, he would sign a two-year deal with the Dijon Basket out in the

LNB Pro A LNB may refer to: Sport * Liga Nacional de Baloncesto, a professional basketball league in the Dominican Republic * Liga Nacional de Básquetbol, an Argentine basketball league * Liga Nacional de Básquetbol (Paraguay), Liga Nacional de Básquetb ...

. During this time, he would gain further exposure from NBA scouts. The

2005–06 NBA season The 2005–06 NBA season was the 60th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Miami Heat defeated the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals, four games to two, to win their first NBA championship. This marked that it was the final ...

would be the first and only NBA season for the 28-year-old 7 ft 0 in

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to play in the

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(NBA) with the

Los Angeles Clippers The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. The ...

. During this season, N'Dong barely played any notable parts with the team, appearing in 23 games with a 7-minute per game average, starting only once for them. However, the Clippers would ultimately have a surprising season under their belt in his sole season there, making it to the Western Conference semifinals for the first time in franchise history, barely upsetting the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA), We ...

in the process. In December 2006, he signed with the Russian club Spartak St. Petersburg. N'Dong moved to the Spanish ACB league later that season and signed with

Unicaja Málaga Unicaja is a Spanish savings bank based in Málaga and chartered as a caja de ahorros providing retail banking services. The banks full name is ''Monte de Piedad y Caja de Ahorros de Ronda, Cádiz, Almería, Málaga y Antequera'' after the ...

for the 2006–07 ACB League play-offs to replace the injured

Daniel Santiago Daniel Gregg Santiago (born June 24, 1976) is a Puerto Rican basketball coach at IMG Academy and former professional basketball player. A center, he had a collegiate career in the NCAA and NAIA. His professional career saw him play in the NBA ...

. On 14 July 2007 he re-signed with Malaga on a one-season contract. He has also played with the

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers, often referred to as the Cavs, are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Divis ...

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squad in 2007. In 2009, he signed a two-year contract worth

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3.2 million

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with the Spanish league club

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

. In 2011, he signed a one-year extension contract with Regal Barcelona. In the summer of 2012, he signed a one-year contract with Galatasaray Medical Park. On 16 June 2013, the day after Galatasaray won the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

league championship, he announced that he was going to retire.

National team career

N'dong helped the Senegal national team get the silver medal at the

FIBA Africa Championship 2005 The 2005 FIBA Africa Championship was the 23rd FIBA Africa Championship, played under the rules of FIBA, the world governing body for basketball, and the FIBA Africa thereof. The tournament was hosted by Algeria from August 15 to 24 2005 and took ...

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

, a competition he won the MVP award.

Coaching career

From 2015 until 2019, N'Dong was an assistant coach for

. In autumn 2020, N'Dong took over as the head coach of the

Senegal national basketball team The Senegal national basketball team (French language, French: ''Équipe de basketball du Senegal'') represents Senegal in men's international basketball and it is overseen by Federation Senegalaise de basketball, five time a gold medallist (in ...

during the qualifiers for

AfroBasket 2021 FIBA AfroBasket 2021 was the 30th edition of the FIBA AfroBasket, a men's basketball continental championship of Africa. The tournament was hosted by Rwanda for the first time. It was originally scheduled to take place between 17 and 29 August 20 ...

Career statistics

NBA

Regular season

, - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", L.A. Clippers , 23 , , 1 , , 16.6 , , .415 , , .000 , , .667 , , 1.6 , , .3 , , .1 , , .2 , , 2.2 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan=2, Career , 23 , , 1 , , 16.6 , , .415 , , .000 , , .667 , , 1.6 , , .3 , , .1 , , .2 , , 2.2

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2007–08 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2",

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

, 19 , , 7 , , 18.7 , , .577 , , .000 , , .592 , , 5.2 , , .5 , , .4 , , 1.4 , , 8.3 , , 10.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2008–09 , 15 , , 1 , , 19.8 , , .579 , , 1.000 , , .661 , , 5.3 , , .4 , , .3 , , 1.3 , , 10.8 , , 12.5 , - , style="text-align:left;background:#AFE6BA;", 2009–10† , style="text-align:left;" rowspan="3",

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, 21 , , 15 , , 16.4 , , .600 , , .000 , , .776 , , 3.6 , , .3 , , .4 , , .9 , , 8.7 , , 9.6 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 20 , , 5 , , 12.0 , , .676 , , , , .692 , , 2.6 , , .1 , , .2 , , .4 , , 6.8 , , 7.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2011–12 , 21 , , 9 , , 15.8 , , .465 , , , , .727 , , 3.5 , , .3 , , .6 , , 1.1 , , 5.9 , , 7.2 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan=2, Career , 96 , , 37 , , 16.3 , , .575 , , .333 , , .688 , , 3.9 , , .3 , , .4 , , 1.0 , , 7.9 , , 9.2

References

External links

*
Euroleague.net ProfileSpanish League Profile

A report in German about N'Dong
{{DEFAULTSORT:N'dong, Boniface 1977 births Living people Baloncesto Málaga players Senegalese basketball coaches BC Spartak Saint Petersburg players Centers (basketball) FC Barcelona Bàsquet players Galatasaray S.K. (men's basketball) players German men's basketball players German people of Senegalese descent People from M'Bour Sportspeople from Thiès region Liga ACB players Los Angeles Clippers players NBA players from Senegal Senegalese expatriate basketball people in France Senegalese expatriate basketball people in Spain Senegalese expatriate basketball people in the United States Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in Russia Undrafted NBA players Coaches at the 2024 Summer Olympics