Ugonna Onyekwe

Ugonna Nnamdi Onyekwe (born July 14, 1979) is a British-Nigerian former professional basketball player. He played professionally from September 2003 through April 2011 before retiring from the sport to enter the business world. Onyekwe played college basketball at the University of Pennsylvania where he became just the fourth Ivy League player ever to be named the Ivy League Player of the Year two times (2002, 2003).

Early life Onyekwe was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He spent his youth there until moving to London, England, where he spent the majority of his teenage years. At the start of the 1999–2000 school year he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia;

College Onyekwe played for the Penn Quakers between 1999 and 2003. In his freshman season he was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year after averaging 11.7 points and 6.0 rebounds per game; he was also named to the All-Ivy League Second Team. He repeated as a First Team selection and even earned an honorable mention All-American status from the Associated Press. Onyekwe graduated Penn with 1,762 points and 759 rebounds.

Professional and later life Despite being a potential draft pick, he was never selected. Onyekwe instead took his game overseas, where in his eight-year career he played in Israel and Spain. While in Israel he competed for Maccabi Rishon and Bnei Hasharon. While in Spain, he competed for Huelva, CAI Zaragoza and Baloncesto León.

Onyekwe retired from professional basketball in April 2011. He has since worked as an events coordinator, and co-founded a media company.