Caleb Agada has played all over the world in his pro basketball career but still hopes to get a shot at the big time and play in the NBA.
The 27-year-old Burlington native has played in countries such as Canada, Spain, Australia, and even Israel.
Agada was born in Nigeria, moved to Canada when he was six and was raised in Burlington.
His first exposure to organized basketball was in high school, when he attended Burlington’s Assumption Catholic Secondary School — much to his mother’s dismay, as she prioritized education over sports.
Regardless, he would take his passion for basketball to the college level, starring for the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees from 2012–2017, proving that he had what it took to play professionally.
Agada would shine for the Gee-Gees during his tenure there, especially after helping the team to win a Wilson Cup championship in 2014 against the Carleton Ravens.
The following season, he was named to his first Ontario University Athletics (OUA) All-Star team. Then in 2015–2016, he took it a step further by winning both the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) and OUA Defensive Player of the Year awards to go along with another OUA First-Team All-Star selection.
Agada would go undrafted at the 2016 NBA draft, but that didn’t slow down his dominance at the college level.
The 2016–2017 season saw him again take home the Usports (formerly CIS) and OUA Defensive Player of the Year awards to go with a third straight OUA First-Team All-Star selection. He also added a Usports Second-Team All-Canadian selection.
Agada would end his time at the University of Ottawa with over 1,100 points, good for fifth all-time in school history, to go along with almost 600 rebounds, putting him second all-time in that category. He ended with an average of 12.5 points per game, 6.4 rebounds per game, and a field goal percentage of 50.4%.
Because of his undrafted status, NBA deals were not exactly rushing into his inbox, so he had to find other avenues to play professional basketball.
The first place he went was Spain, playing for CB Prat of Liga Española de Baloncesto, also known as LEB Oro.
After that, Agada got the chance to play for Nigeria in the 2019 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers. He did well and made it to the preliminary squad, but didn’t make the final cut.
He finally got to represent his country on the big stage this year at the Tokyo Olympics. However, Nigeria never made it out of the group stage and Agada didn’t see much playing time.
One of the bigger moments of his career to date was back in July of this year, when he helped his national squad defeat Team U.S.A. 90–87 in Olympic exhibition play. It was only Team U.S.A.’s third loss in exhibition play since pros started playing in 1992. Agada contributed 17 points and went 3–3 from beyond the three-point line.
Despite playing for his home country against some of the best players in the NBA, Agada didn’t forget what he went there to do.
“When you chase things like that, you need the utmost focus, you can’t just pretend,” Agada said when he appeared on the Eskandy Sports podcast in September.
His second pro club, also in Spain, was Melilla Baloncesto in 2018–2019. Also that season, Agada returned home to Canada for a short two-game stint with the Hamilton Honey Badgers.
But arguably his biggest professional success was when he went to play with Hapoel Be’er Sheva B.C. of the Israeli Basketball Premier League.
There he would lead the league in points per game and steals per game during the 2020–2021 season. He would also be named player of the week on November 14 after dropping 25 points, eight rebounds, and six assists in a game against Maccabi Rishon LeZion.
In August, Agada signed with defending champion Melbourne United of Australia’s National Basketball League for the 2021–2022 season.
Before that, though, Agada got his closest taste of the NBA, playing for the Denver Nuggets in the 2021 NBA Summer League.
Agada went in with a lot of confidence and was excited to show himself and prove himself to scouts, but he said the NBA process was tough to navigate for the first time at age 27 and he experienced a lot of ups and downs.
He ultimately wasn’t offered an NBA deal, but has gone on to play well down under. He’s averaging 16 points per game and more than five rebounds per game with Melbourne United.
Recently, he led his team with 21 points in their 89–47 victory against the Sydney Kings.
Despite the lack of offers from North American teams so far, Agada is still determined to make it in the NBA.
“NBA is still definitely in the future for me. And I’m just going to keep striving for it,” he said on the podcast. “This is only a little bit of my story.”
