By Peter Toth
This is Katowice in Poland, the basketball championship of the U14 teams of Silesia where future talents of Polish basketball are being looked for and very often discovered. A handful of teams full of good and enthusiastic young prospects, but a team in blue and white catches the eye of the beholder immediately. As passing by the queue of the players from face to face the eye of the average-sized adult (being 1.78m myself) suddenly stares at the neck of a young boy. The center of MKS Dabrowa Gornicza towers above me but also his teammates and even the whole competition.
Thus we meet Adam Niespor ('99) from Dabrowa Gornicza who with his 13,5 years has just reached 198cm. But it is not only his height but also his tremendous sizes (the massive body and the large basketball hands and his size 49 shoe – so unusual in such a young age) what makes him the object of my enquiry.
After this astonishing encounter one might not marvel if the first question relates his size.
“I have always been very tall, at the age of 2 years I already had 99 cm which was a good starting point for the future” – the gentle young giant betrays. “Then I continued quickly reaching 163cm at 3rd grade in the school and between 9 and 13 years I grew like the grass, sometimes even 15 cm a year, growing fast beyond 190cm with my 13th birthday.”
So I am not surprised at all when he tells me that he is the tallest pupil in his school, but presumably even in the whole country of his age.
“So given these potentials basketball might have been an unavoidable choice?” – I wonder.“Not quite so – says Adam – “as it wasn’t so obvious. I have tried many other sports, doing judo, swimming and athletics, too, but when I was 10 years old (and around 180cm tall – I should add), my friend took me one of his basketball games where his coach, Rudolf Marzena, has immediately noticed me. Seeing my height all what he wanted to know was my age. After he had learnt it, he asked the approval of my parents to let me play and next week I have already got my number 4 in his team. This was my first contact with basketball which has not let me go anywhere else and my love towards this sport continues ever since.”
“Actually, my choice for basketball was not an easy decision. I had to play the whole week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday there were trainings, and on weekends we had games home and away. Moreover, the place where we practiced that time was about 45km from where we lived then. Although we live closer now, it is still 30km drive and I have practice 5 times a week before school, plus matches on Mondays after school. But it is worth the sacrifice.”
Although a recent injury has hindered him for two months from regular games and practices, his enthusiasm, as he speaks about balling, is undiminished.
“In the last months I played, I had an average of about 8 points per game, then I was selected as best individual player, so I have 9 awards and 18 medals and I am hoping to get better now as the injury is over. I now it is only by hard work to progress, but I am determined. Last summer I spent three weeks at the nearby lake with my friends yet devoting five hours of my day to practice in a 35 C hot hall without air condition. My dream is to continue with basketball and attend Dabrowa school or the Marcin Gortat School and acquire a degree in sports studies as physiotherapist or coach. But the most important is to play the game and to show the Polish squad of his vintage. I really don’t know what I would do if there was no basketball to play, it has become such an integral part of my life.”
