The Silvio de Sousa era is over
Silvio de Sousa is opting out of the 2020-21 basketball season, and my thoughts are with him and as family as he deals with the issues alluded to in Friday’s note:
Like many Jayhawk fans I know, I thought that Silvio was probably done when he picked up that chair in January. (Yes, that was this year). However, defying expectations to some degree, KU stuck by their player. It was the right thing to do, even though the de Sousa era at Kansas will be forever associated with the controversy it brought to the program. The bill still hasn’t come due in Kansas’s battle with the NCAA, an investigation centered around payments to de Sousa’s guardian, Fenny Falmagne. It’s possible—maybe even likely—that KU will have to vacate their 2018 Final Four appearance, a run buoyed by the then-newcomer de Sousa’s energy, defense and rebounding. A lot of fans will probably remember de Sousa for the off-court stuff and not for a four-game run in 2018, which feels at least a little unfair.
Now, he’s leaving the program. It was tough to figure if de Sousa figured into Bill Self’s on-court plan for the forthcoming season. This year’s Jayhawk team could be even deeper than last year’s team, with a variety of options at forward even though de Sousa’s absence will leave them a little bit on the small side. In small spurts of playing time last season, de Sousa seemed lost on the floor. Even if he didn’t end up playing much in 20-21, to end his KU career on this note… I just feel sad about it. There’s not much of a silver lining that I can see right now.
When I heard about Silvio’s decision to opt out, I immediately thought of Joel Embiid, another KU player from coastal Africa. College basketball’s culture frames roster spots on blue-blood schools as opportunities, expressions of good fortune; surely many would other players would leap at the chance to play somewhere that has provided a sturdy route to a professional sports career.
But the living arrangements for foreign players can be emotionally brutal; they’re continents away from home, far from the support systems they grew up with. Family members can’t visit without visas, which can be incredibly tricky to secure even in more stable political climates. Oftentimes, these players are living with guardians who have unknown agendas—in de Sousa’s case the NCAA claims that Falmagne profited off of the player, albeit without de Sousa’s knowledge.
When Embiid’s younger brother, Arthur, died in an accident in Cameroon in 2014, Embiid hadn’t seen his brother in three years. That’s just so remarkably sad. I believe that de Sousa will get through this, and that he could be a pro somewhere someday. To happier times, Silvio.