{"id":47858,"date":"2021-12-08T14:47:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T13:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.demo.olimpia.iquii.info\/?p=47858"},"modified":"2022-10-11T14:48:59","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T12:48:59","slug":"the-big-story-of-big-ben-bentil-im-just-a-kid-from-ghana-how-was-it-all-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.olimpiamilano.com\/en\/the-big-story-of-big-ben-bentil-im-just-a-kid-from-ghana-how-was-it-all-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Story of Big Ben Bentil: “I’m just a kid from Ghana, how was it all possible?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The guy was big, bigger than life in his native Ghana.<\/strong> He didn\u2019t have the opportunity to play in big arenas, his stage was mostly outdoor courts, when he was doing his 360\u00b0 aerial dunk and once he jumped over a car and dunked. He was bigger than life, a star. He was Meme Falconer, the most famous Ghana player of all time. \u201cHe was the Kobe Bryant of Ghana. The guy was unbelievable, the stuff he was doing when he was younger,\u201d Ben Bentil says.<\/p>\n

Ben was really young, he was a promising volleyball player, he was good at soccer too, as a striker. But one beautiful day, he got to know Meme Falconer. He was doing his stuff at one outdoor court and Ben just like all the other kids, was in awe of him. \u201cHe was on tv, doing commercials, he was huge,\u201d he recalled. Meme spotted him. Ben was a young kid, 12 years old, and big and athletics. A ton of promising potential. \u201cFor a guy like that to even work with me and become more than just a coach, but a big brother, was huge,\u201d Bentil says. To make a long story short, Meme Falconer, the local Kobe Bryant, became his coach, his mentor, his friend. \u201cMeme was a huge factor on who I am today, because he took me under his wing as a big brother, and as a father figure. He helped me become a man, not only as a basketball player. He gave me the skills, something that he possessed because he was an icon back home. So, he was somebody we looked up to and just the fact that he passed all that to me, and somehow live the dream he wanted to live for him had a big impact for me\u201d.<\/p>\n

Technically speaking, Meme Falconer is the Ghana\u2019s coach, only they don\u2019t have a senior national team. They are working on it. \u201cWe have players playing all over the world \u2013 Bentil says -, college, professionals, all type of levels, that they want to come back and play. Hopefully we can make it happen before I\u2019m too old and can\u2019t play no more.\u201d Truthfully, Ghana has some promising junior national teams and basketball is growing. Meme Falconer is the godfather, Ben Bentil is the guy who experienced the most success. \u201cNow, I want to pave the way for the younger guys coming up. I know kids that are looking up to me and say I wanna be where Ben got to,\u201d Bentil pointed out, feeling like he is not just representing himself and his big family, but a whole country.<\/p>\n

When he was 15, Bentil left his native country an embarked on a long journey to the U.S. Falconer found a way to put him in a couple of high school. He played basketball and soccer two. \u201cI had a couple of chance to go to college and play soccer, I was good, really good, but by that time I was already in love with basketball,\u201d he recalls. The first stop was in Pennsylvania, at Haverford, then he moved to St. Andrew\u2019s, in the close state of Delaware where he met Austin Tilghman, a point guard equipped with good talent. They became friends. Or better than that. They became brothers. \u201cThe transition from Ghana to the States was pretty hard because I\u2019ve always been a mama\u2019s boy. Being away from my mother was the hardest part, I love the food that my mom was cooking, so not being able to get for holidays the attention of my mom was hard. The culture is different, but at the same time I knew the mission. It was an opportunity to get better myself and get a better life for my family, my mom. So, it was like Ok, you can cry about it but at the same time be a man and just deal with it,\u201d Bentil says. Then the Tilghman family entered the picture. \u201cHis family took me as their son, their middle son, so Austin is my little brother. Blood might not be the same, but he is everything to me\u201d, he points out. Tilghman has played basketball at Monmouth, then moved to Europa and now he is playing for Ravenna. \u201cHe is really excited that I\u2019m playing a couple of hours away from him. So, he will the chance to come and see me play, and if I have the chance I will go and see him play. He had a big impact on who I am, his family had a big impact, they took me and helped me, dropped me to practices, to games, provided shelter. Austin is my family, everybody who knows me, knows that Austin is my family\u201d.<\/p>\n