Ater Majok, former Los Angeles Lakers draft pick, is playing the best basketball of his life. It just took him until the age of 38 to do it.
From an NBA point of view, Majok’s career never really began. The 6’11 former Connectictut Huskies center mostly existed on the list of unsigned draft picks whose greatest value lies as filler objects in the trades of others, something that happened to Majok on multiple occasions. Apart from one summer league – in which he played badly – Majok never played in an NBA game.
Nevertheless, in the wider basketball world, Majok has been a name for nearly two decades. And while by and large it has been a name associated with underperforming on his perceived potential, he has broken out offensively at this advanced sporting age, even if he had to travel the world and step down in talent level to do so.
An NBA Afterthought
Majok’s NBA career began inauspiciously via a very late draft pick and a bad trade. He was drafted 58th overall in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Lakers, who had won 57 games the year before , using a pick that they had previous acquired from the Miami Heat in exchange for Patrick Beverley . That, and a summer league performance in which he averaged 1.3 points per game, were the main highlights of Majok’s NBA career.
His name nevertheless made the rounds on newswires as a piece of trade filler. After five years of never threatening the Lakers’ roster, Majok’s draft rights were traded to the Chicago Bulls in July 2016 in a package deal for José Calderón and two future second-round picks (later used on Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and Bruno Fernando ), and a year later, his rights were re-traded by the Bulls to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for Quincy Pondexter , a future second-round pick and cash. The Pelicans would later take the rare if ultimately meaningless step of renouncing Majok’s draft rights, leaving him an unrestricted NBA free agent – if ever he was to get to that level.
He never did. But instead, Majok has nevertheless put in plenty of miles, on every habitable continent there is.
Majokâs professional career began in 2011-12 when he played for MBK Nitra in Slovakia, before moving on in the following season to Tsmoki-Minsk in Belarus and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel. Further stops in Germany, the G League, Poland and South Korea would follow before Majok wound up at what became his most regular haunt – Lebanon.
The Ater Majok World Tour
From 2016 to 2019, Majok played three years in the country that he would later take the citizenship of and would spend three more between 2022 and 2025. In addition to that, he would also play in Australia, Tunisia, Venezuela, Libya, Angola, Iraq, Burundi, Bahrain, Mexico, Tanzania and the UAE, completing almost the entire non-European checklist. And in this season, his age-39 year, Majok has added a new destination by signing in the Indonesian IBL.
Historically, the IBL has not been a destination league for foreign imports, and no Indonesian talent (aside from nationalized players such as former Cleveland Cavaliers center Marques Bolden ) have made any waves on the world stage. Because of that, and the lack of size by top-level basketball standards among the Indonesian population, any import players with size and pedigree can feast, especially on the rebounding glass.
Notwithstanding that context, however, Majok is posting numbers that would shine in any league. In ten games for Rajawali, a team in the capital city of Jakarta, Majok has averaged 14.8 points, 12.7 rebounds, 3.0 blocks and 1,8 assists per game. He even hit a three-pointer, albeit on 14 attempts. For context, five-year NBA veteran center Jeff Withey is also in the country, and is averaging 15.8 points , 15.0 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game, while former Lakers guard Vander Blue averages 15.6 points , 6.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. It is on course to be the best offensive season in Majok’s career.
Majok’s arrival into the professional game coincided with the NBA’s evolution away from traditional pure-paint centers. He had not shone at UConn, was a limited offensive talent, and did not enjoy a size advantage at the NBA level, where most of his peers were also quicker. Nevertheless, Majok is now deep into his second decade of professional play, as genuine size with rim protection instincts have always been sought on the market. And for someone as willing to travel as Majok has been, there will always be work.
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