Real Madrid youth player Usman Garuba returns home after spending three seasons in the NBA. The Madrid club announced this Tuesday in a statement that the player will be tied to the entity at least until June 30, 2027. Garuba’s time in the American tournament was far from ideal: with the Houston Rockets he only played 18 minutes spread over six games for a total of three points and seven rebounds throughout the campaign. Now, he joins the club that saw him grow at a time when hands are needed, after the departure of Guerschon Yabusele to the NBA Sixers. Garuba has shown himself to be “very happy to return home,” according to has written on the social network X.
The power forward first joined the club in 2013, playing in all categories and being crowned champion of Spain in the children’s, cadet and junior categories, as well as winning two Mini Cups and the Junior European Cup in 2019, the year of his debut with the Real Madrid first team. Already in the elite category, he lifted four trophies in three campaigns: a League, a Copa del Rey and two Spanish Super Cups. In addition, he was chosen as the Best Young Player of the Endesa League and the Euroleague in the 2020-2021 season. Before crossing the Atlantic Ocean, Garuba played 69 games in the Endesa League and another 53 in the Euroleague. With the Spanish national team, he has been capped 42 times and has won the gold medal at the 2022 European Championship.
After shining in Spain, Garuba made the jump to the NBA three years ago, where he played two seasons with the Houston Rockets (2021-2023) and a third with the Golden State Warriors (2023-2024). Although his desire was to continue in the American league, the lack of sporting proposals, after the announcement of his contract on June 30, precipitated his return to the club where he was trained. Garuba has published on his X account: “(I am) looking forward to showing my best version again and giving everything for this jersey that has given me so much since I was 11 years old. We will fight to win all the titles and leave this club at the top.”
Garuba is 22 years old, 2.03m tall, weighs 112 kilos and has a shoe size of 51. Destiny is his middle name, of Christian origin. That is what his mother, Betty, calls him, although not his father, who prefers the Muslim name, Usman. He grew up in Azuqueca de Henares, 50 kilometres from Madrid, where an unexpected twist of fate put an orange ball in his hands. “I didn’t like basketball. I didn’t want to play it. I was obsessed with football, but there were no places on the team… and they signed me up for the basket. I was nine years old,” he confessed in July of this year, in front of a group of children from the Santiago Apóstol Cabanyal School in Valencia.
You can follow EL PAÍS Sports on Facebook and Xor sign up here to receive our newsletter.
