Poor genius! He was once the second in the United States, but he was seriously injured three times, leaving only a 4.3-point data list!

"I think it was a completely stupid decision to put him in the Development League before. We almost missed a genius!" When Greg Popovich had not yet had a stroke and was still working on the Spurs' affairs, the old man said the above amazing words after seeing a player's performance. You should know that during Popovich's coaching career, he met countless talented players, such as David Robertson and Tim Duncan in the early years, later Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and now Victor Vinbanyama. They are all Hall of Fame-level stars. They can get such praise from Popovich, which shows that this person is indeed extraordinary, and he is Charles Bassie.

There may be many people who don’t know much about Pasir. After all, after entering the NBA in 2021, he has only played 113 games in total. However, when it comes to another person, you must all know, that is RJ Barrett. In high school, Bassie was once the second highest school student in the United States after Barrett, which caused many NCAA teams to rob. Many scouts even believe that after entering the NBA in the future, he will definitely become a superstar. However, he never expected to encounter misfortunes one after another, which caused the genius to die. Now he is only 24 years old, he is likely to have to sign a two-way contract, and may even have no ball to play. Let’s walk into this story of poor genius together!

1. A genius inside star ruined his future because of his choice.

Pathi, from Nigeria, Africa, is like most African players. Since childhood, he has to work part-time outside to subsidize his family income at a young age. Because he has experienced selling fried chicken on the street, fans also joked that he is "fried chicken brother". However, Bassi has shown good basketball talent since he was a child, and it coincided with the Raptors holding a basketball training camp in Africa, hoping to find young players with potential. Basil was also lucky enough to qualify for the competition, and he had a rare opponent in the training camp and became the MVP of the event. This time, he also changed the fate of Basil. He was attracted by scouts and traveled across the ocean to the United States to pursue his basketball dream. In high school, Bassi has improved rapidly. In high school, he averaged 20.2 points, 17.1 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game, which is completely a superstar in the inside. When he graduated in 2018, he was not only successfully elected as Texas Basketball Master, but also selected into various best teams. In the ranking of high school students across the United States, he was once second only to the later Tanhua Show RJ Barrett, causing the snatch of major NCAA teams.

However, in order to get more opportunities, Basil did not go to a prestigious basketball school, but chose the unknown Western Kentucky University. Although this university is not very famous, after Basil was joined, he was trained as the core. In his freshman season, he was able to contribute 14.6 points, 10 rebounds and 2.4 blocks, and performed very well. Moreover, his dynamic and static talents are very good. His height is 2.06 meters, a weight of 104 kilograms, and an extremely exaggerated 2.23 meters wingspan, Bassi will definitely be able to enter the lottery zone after the freshman season. However, he unexpectedly chose to continue his studies in college, and this choice also ruined his bright future. In his sophomore season, he only played 10 games before suffering a serious injury from a tibia fracture and was forced to reimburse the season. Although he was still able to contribute 17.6 points, 11.6 rebounds and 3.1 blocks in his junior year, and was elected as the MVP in the division and was selected into the All-First Team, he already had a history of major injuries and was close to 21 years old, which still caused his draft market to continue to decline. Finally, at the 2021 draft, he was not selected until the 23rd pick in the second round.

2. He has suffered from injuries for a long time and has been abandoned by the team.

Although it is only a second round pick, Bassie has entered the NBA at least. However, he is in the 76ers, but it is difficult for him to get any chance. After all, with Joel Embiid, Andre Drummond and others, his playing time is naturally very limited. Therefore, he only played 23 games and left no traces, so he was laid off by the team. Fortunately, the Spurs took his eye on his potential and recruited him in the summer of 2022. Although they had to start from the Development League, Basil was not frustrated, but proved his ability with actions. In his first Development League game, he scored 33 points and 15 rebounds, and his offensive end was even more overwhelming. During his time with the Austin Spurs, he averaged nearly 26 points, 14 rebounds and 4 blocks per game. So, Popovich also recalled him to the team, and in the remaining 35 games of the 22-23 season, he averaged 5.7 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game, with a shooting percentage of up to 64.4%. Popovich regarded him as an important member of the team's rotation lineup.

Logically speaking, according to his condition and performance at that time, even if the team got Vampan Yama, Bassi would not sacrifice too much. Even if he encountered a non-displaced fracture of the left patella at the end of the 2023 season, the Spurs still wanted to give him a chance, after all, his body and ability are indeed good. But unfortunately, in the 23-24 season, he suffered a serious injury from a torn cruciate ligament on his left knee. While the season was reimbursed again, his future was ruined again. Although he returned to the Spurs this season, considering his injury history, the Spurs did not allow him to play too much time. As a result, he can only contribute 4.4 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, and only played 36 games in total. But even so, he still has minor injuries, which has hurt the Spurs' senior management.. With the expiration of the rookie contract and the Spurs got a good striker Carter Bryant in the draft, I'm afraid it will be difficult for Bassie to stay in the team. Now he is 25 years old, it is likely that it will be difficult for him to get a stable contract. All of this comes from various injuries. How can the former African genius end up like this now?