“Chairman Maodo”: the story of a Olimpia World Champion

17/09/2023 14:25
“Chairman Maodo”: the story of a Olimpia World Champion

Maodo Lo has chosen Milan for his first pro season away from Germany

At Columbia University they called him “Chairman Maodo”. No one knows how the nickname was invented. The first to use it was the “Columbia Spectator”, the university student website. It was liked and offered again later during Maodo’s career with the Lions. Then it was refreshed at various times after his return to Europe. Thus, we have “Chairman Maodo” a clear verbal reference to “Chairman Mao Zedong”, the historical and influential president of the People’s Republic of China. Despite its undeniable role in the history of the world, not just in China, only an academically high institution like Columbia could think of such a culturally important reference.

In truth, Maodo Lo has Senegales origin. His father named him after a religious figure who was called “Maodo” which means “Great”. His German mother is a great artist, Elvira Bach, whose post-modern paintings are shown at several art galleries around the World including the Guggenheim Museum and the MOMA in New York. Lo was born in Berlin and his passion was basketball from day one but strangely he was not recruited by Alba and eventually decided to move to the United States, first to a high school in Springfield, the home of the Hall of Fame, near Boston, a culture shock for a kid coming from a multicultural city like Berlin, then to Columbia. Columbia, on the other hand, is in the heart of New York City. It is part of the Ivy League, the one with most academically prestigious colleges such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton and in fact Columbia with its wonderful campus located in the upper section of Manhattan, on Broadway, a 10-minute walk from Central Park North. This is the place where the story of Maodo Lo became interesting.

Columbia was founded in 1754 and has never lost its identity. But in sports, it was never particularly relevant. The roll of honor talks about three national titles at the beginning of the 20th century, awarded retroactively, but we are talking about another era. The only real shining moment came at the end of the 1960s when coach Jack Rohan relied on the great Jim McMillian, a future NBA star with the Lakers, and eventually even in Italy, to reach a top 10 spot in the national ranking and earning a berth to the NCAA Tournament. But since 1968 it has never returned to those levels.

But then-coach, Kyle Smith, had big, ambitious, and different plans. Smith was the coach who recruited Maodo Lo on a tip from a friend who noticed him back in Germany and brought him to Manhattan, taught him some nuances of the game that would complete him as a player. He is fast, he likes to run, but Columbia implemented the “Princeton Offense”, a system based on cuts, passing and timely shooting, which often ate up at least 30 of the 35 seconds allowed at the NCAA level to take a shot. In practice, Coach Smith paid close attention to shooting drills. Maodo Lo became a great shooter during those years. After his second season with the Lions, with his numbers constantly increasing, all the German clubs offered him a chance to return home and be paid. But he stayed. He wanted to play in the NCAA Tournament. To do that he would have to win the Ivy League. In 2015, he scored 37 points against Princeton, but Columbia eventually lost. And he didn’t make it in 2016 when “Chairman Maodo” led Columbia to a big win in the CIT, one of the post-season tournaments that might seem consolatory but for this kind of college was a big success.

In four years, Maodo Lo became the third-best scorer ever at Columbia, as well as first in steals and three-pointers made. He was a two-time All-Ivy League and once a second-All Ivy League selection. His Lions career ended with 12 consecutive double-digit games, and the CIT’s MVP award. But standing out in Columbia can give you a head start in your professional life only as long as it doesn’t involve sports. Maodo Lo was not selected in the NBA draft even though the Philadelphia 76ers signed him for the summer league. He could have pursued an NBA contract with a partially guaranteed deal, but he opted to return home.

 

He chose Bamberg. Back then, Bamberg was competing in the EuroLeague, and among his teammates he had Nicolò Melli as well as Daniel Theis, another world champion, Fabien Causeur and the future NBA player, Darius Miller. “I had a minor role, I was a defensive specialist,” he explained. In the following seasons his role expanded especially when he came to Berlin, his city. Maodo played for all the three top German teams of the last decade going from Bamberg to Munich and from Munich to Berlin where he won two Bundesliga titles, four in total. He’s won the championship in Bamberg in 2017, in Munich in 2018 and in Berlin in 2021 and 2022. In 2022 when he also won the German Cup, he was MVP of the competition. Meanwhile, he was a pillar of the national team, too.

 

In 2021 in the Pre-Olympic tournament, with Denis Schroder unavailable, it was he who hurt Croatia to gain access to the Tokyo Games where he averaged 14.3 points per game, including a 24-point losing effort against Italy. Last year he won the European bronze medal and this year he became World Champion, the highest and most satisfying point of his career. He had a huge 20-point game against Australia and 6-for-6 from three shooting show against Georgia during the tournament.

As a professional he has only played in Germany, winning a lot by the way. He could have left at other times, but there was always a reason not to, including the fact that Berlin was the place he calls home. “We would have wanted him in the past, but he didn’t feel like leaving,” admitted Coach Ettore Messina during the team presentation. This year he thought the right time had come. He only played professionally in Germany but spent five years in the United States. That means something. Now all his athletic and scoring talent (remember the 6-for-6 three-point shooting game at the World Cup?) will be right here with Olimpia.

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