Barcelona has filled another spot in its frontcourt with a two-year contract and continued strengthening the team under Aleksander Sekulić. Tosan Evbuomwan arrives as an NBA G League champion and Finals MVP, with 50 NBA appearances to his name, and will take his place at power forward.
Behind what looks like a fairly standard signing is the story of a boy who left Newcastle United’s academy at 11, then did not start playing organized basketball until he was 14, at a school where a team barely existed.
A Childhood Built Around More Than One Sport
Evbuomwan grew up in Newcastle in a family where sports and education both mattered, though neither was viewed as the only path his life could take. His father, Isaac, a Nigeria-born gynecologist, played basketball at the University of Lagos and later in amateur leagues in England. His older brother, Toju, competed in track and field for Gateshead Harriers.
Tosan tried almost everything available to him. He played rugby, cricket and tennis, ran cross-country and competed in track and field. Football, though, was his first serious sport.
He started playing at four and entered Newcastle’s academy at eight. A midfielder, Evbuomwan has said that football was his main sport at the time and also the one he was best at. In a city that belongs to its football club, where supporting the Magpies is part of the way children are raised, earning a place in the academy carried particular weight.
Why He Walked Away From Newcastle
Evbuomwan left the system at 11 as the program became more demanding. Young players were expected to miss one day of school each week, report to the training facility and study there with tutors. He did not like the arrangement, but the more important issue was that his relationship with football had changed. Matches he once looked forward to began making him nervous, and he was no longer enjoying himself.
His parents did not push him to stay simply because it was such a major opportunity. His father later explained that the family had never viewed sports as a profession decided in advance. As long as a child wants to play and looks forward to games, the commitment of time and energy makes sense. Once that feeling disappears, the name of the club does not have to change anything.
The Memory He Carried to Princeton
Around the same time, Evbuomwan went through the most difficult experience of his childhood. His mother, Michelle, died of breast cancer in November 2012, when he was 11. She was one of the first women to become a commercial airline captain in Nigeria, took part in Red Cross humanitarian missions and, according to family accounts, piloted flights carrying Nelson Mandela. She later left her job to devote more time to her family.
Tosan wore No. 20 at Princeton because his mother was born on March 20, and he played in pink shoes to raise awareness of breast cancer. Through conversations with his father, brother and aunts, he continued learning details about her life. The message he remembered most was to remain who he was and do the best he could.
Basketball Began at a School Without a Team
After leaving Newcastle’s academy, he did not immediately settle on another main sport. He returned to football with a local team made up of friends, without any desire to reenter the professional system. Tosan played rugby at the Royal Grammar School and continued competing in other sports, while the basketball hoop in the family’s backyard still had little influence on his plans.
But, he began taking basketball seriously during a family vacation in Florida. Later he stated that every morning he asked his father to find a court where he could play with local kids. When he returned to England, he decided to try the sport in an organized setting.
His school, traditionally centered around rugby, did not have an established basketball program. Evbuomwan and his childhood friend Kian Ardabili convinced the deputy head responsible for sports to help them start a team. Before it was properly up and running, they played wherever they could find a hoop, even using netball courts, watching NBA games and trying to recreate the moves they had seen.
They knew they had started later than most players their age. Evbuomwan’s first club was the Newcastle East Griffins, where the coach saw the way he defended and assumed he had already received serious training. Tosan explained that his father had only taught him a basic defensive stance and how to move his feet. Less than a year later, he was invited to an England under-15 national team camp.
At one selection event, the coaches initially told him he had not made the team. As he was leaving, one of them came back and said there had been a mistake and that he was supposed to stay. Evbuomwan later pointed to that moment as the first time he believed he might be able to go somewhere in basketball.
Princeton Offered Both Basketball and Education
Education remained central to the family’s thinking. Tosan earned excellent grades, and when it was time to choose a college, he looked for a place where he would not have to sacrifice his education to play serious basketball. Newcastle Eagles coach Ian MacLeod sent his film to American universities. Princeton was the first to show concrete interest, and assistant coach Brett MacConnell then traveled to England to watch him in person.
Evbuomwan chose Princeton over Stanford and Northwestern, graduated with a degree in economics, became the Ivy League Player of the Year and led the Tigers to the Sweet 16 of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. As a No. 15 seed, Princeton beat Arizona and Missouri and produced the program’s best tournament run since 1967.
The Lost Season That Changed His Career
Between his first and second competitive seasons came a period that can easily disappear from a brief biography. The Ivy League canceled the 2020/21 season because of the pandemic, so Evbuomwan returned home and spent six months training with the Newcastle Eagles’ senior team. He lived on an almost professional schedule, with practices, weight-room work and film study, but without playing games because he could not risk losing his NCAA eligibility. He averaged 3.9 points in his first season at Princeton. When he returned, he became the best player in the conference.
A Power Forward Who Thinks Like a Playmaker
The way Evbuomwan played reminded Princeton coach Mitch Henderson of his footbal background. Henderson compared him to a No. 9 or No. 10 who slows the game down for himself while speeding it up for his teammates. Although he will play power forward in Barcelona, his greatest value does not come from playing like a traditional big man. He can bring the ball up, recognize a cut, operate from the high post and connect different parts of an offense.
Two Years of Fighting for the Next Opportunity
Evbuomwan went undrafted in 2023. Two uncertain years followed, with regular movement between the G League and NBA rosters. He played for Memphis, Detroit, Brooklyn and New York, but never managed to secure a lasting role. His best result came this spring, when he won the G League championship with the Greensboro Swarm and was named Finals MVP. He averaged 18.5 points over the two-game championship series and scored 22 in the deciding game.
Barcelona Finally Offers Stability
Barcelona is now giving him what he did not have in the United States, a two-year contract in the same environment and a clear opportunity to establish himself in European basketball. Sekulić is getting a mobile power forward who can take part in initiating the offense, though adapting to the Euroleague will take time.
For Evbuomwan, major changes are nothing new. He left Newcastle when he realized he no longer enjoyed football, began playing basketball at a school without a team, moved from England to Princeton and reached the NBA without being drafted.
He comes to Barcelona after a period in which, every few months, he had to prove that he deserved another opportunity. For the first time in his professional career, he will now have enough time to show what he can do with one.
