LAKELAND, Fla. — When the Lakeland Magic tip off in their home opener Saturday, the home crowd will get to meet one of its newest players, who also happens to be the NBA's first Colombian-born player.
- Braian Angola-Rodas played for Orlando Magic during summer league
- Team signed him to G-League team for 2018-2019
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Braian Angola-Rodas, a Florida State graduate, went undrafted this summer and ended up playing for the Orlando Magic during the summer league. The team decided he would be a better fit playing in Lakeland for their G-league team.
“I had some offers overseas, but I decided that I wanted to be the first Colombian to ever make it to the NBA and that’s my goal," Angola-Rodas told us. "I already have my step in the door, no matter if it’s this year, next year, I’m going to keep working hard to make it what I want it to be."
A long journey
Angola said Colombians back home are going nuts over him playing professional basketball in United States.
“I didn’t know it was going to be such a big deal being the first Colombian making it to the NBA, but everybody in my country was talking to me," he explained. "I was talking to every single news. I was talking to every single show. every single newspaper was calling me. “
He’s come a long way since he left his hometown of Villanueva at 14 to play basketball at a boarding school in Villavicencio.
“They were recruiting kids to go into war, so I was like, 'Mom I want to leave, I don’t want to be here,” Angola said.
That was ten years ago.
Part of a movement
He left boarding school to play for Findlay Prep High School in Nevada, then North Idaho Junior College, and after that Florida State.
“I actually just got my diploma yesterday, and I started crying like a little baby, because everything I went through when I came to the United States, I didn’t speak English,” said Angola.
Now, he’s proud to be a part of the movement to show the world a different side of Colombia.
“The other day I was with J. Balvin, one of my favorite artists, and person in the world," Angola said. "I was talking to him face-to-face and he was like, 'thank you for doing this for Colombia,' and I was like 'thank you for motivating me to keep working towards my goals.'"
With the large Colombian population in Orlando, Angola-Rodas is hopeful the Orlando magic will give him another shot, and his basketball journey will have at least one more stop.
“Those kids that text me everyday [saying] you my idol, I want to be like you when I grow up, thank you so much for putting Colombia on the map," he continued. "They [tell me they] don’t talk about Pablo Escobar, they talk about you now. It’s something that’s making me really really proud."