🏀0️⃣3️⃣6️⃣ Mah Minthe
By: Mah Minthe
Photo: Mah Minthe
Meet Mah Minthe, a student-athlete transcending transatlantic ties through basketball to live her version of the “American Dream” on and off the court.
Editor’s Note: This is Mah’s first-hand account of her transatlantic experience through basketball.
I started playing basketball by going to basketball school (ecole de basket) every Saturday morning in fifth grade (CM2) because one of my best friends forced me to go with her😁 It was fun but nothing more at that time. I started enjoying my time with basketball little by little and by the end of the year one of the coaches from Paris Basket 18 invited me to join their program at the Gérard Philippe school. During my middle school, I had the chance to participate in the Up From Basketball basketball camp in the United States with a team from France. During that camp I had an opportunity to play in an AAU tournament where a high school coach tried to recruit me for 10th grade. So after going back home after that summer, I talked to my parents about the opportunity to go to another country, learn the languages, and play a sport that I love. This is how I got to the United States. The first school that I attended was Bloomington Christian High School, where from 2017 to 2020 I played while working towards graduating with my high school diploma. These three years of high school were definitely the best ones of my life and made me want to pursue my journey there.
Mah’s Story
“Going to a junior college was one of my best decisions. People often underestimate junior college but you get a lot of learning out of the experience. People often think if you don’t go straight from high school to a D1 school, it is a bad look. But junior college can prepare you to go to a D1 program, too.”
My experience in the United States was a bit of a rollercoaster after high school. I went to a junior college in Texas an hour away from Dallas named Grayson College during the first COVID year . I did not get playing time, so it was really hard mentally and I changed schools at the end of the year to Clarendon College. That was probably the best decision that I made. I was Newcomer of the Year, All-Conference and All-region by the end of the year. Our team went all the way to the regional championship.e ultimately lost, but it was a really great year for me and my teammates. After that season I had the opportunity to go to a Division 1 school but due to that COVID year, I took the extra year to return to Clarendon.
Minthe in action. Photo: Mah Minthe
My last year there was really good, too, and we tried to go as far as we did the first year– all the way to the regional championship… but we lost in the first round. It was hard because when you get somewhere and you set your goal but do not reach it–it hurts.
Basketball helped me to be really disciplined, especially in life, by getting time to take care of my business, by making sure that I do my school work, manage my sleep schedule, and push myself everyday by going hard and not giving up, because going to a D1 is not a game and is definitely really hard.
Minthe with her team at the 2022 All Parisian Games. Photo Credit: Fx Rougeot for All Parisian Games.
Last year (2022), I participated in the All Parisian Games, which works to unite the basketball community around Paris’ 19th arrondissement and organizes U17-U20 competition festivals. Participating was a blessing and an experience that continues with me today, even though I’m no longer a player.
(Editor’s note: for more on All Parisian Games, read the testimony of co-founders Paul Odonat and Bakary Sakho for the “Basketball Diplomacy in Africa Oral History Project” here.)
All Parisian Games also gave me the chance to meet NBA players like Zion Williamson. I actually met him twice: the first time was when I was a player and had the chance to have him attend a practice and play defense on us; the second time was when I interviewed him. That was really cool and amazing for me. I really want to say thank you to the All Parisian Family because they are the ones who made it happen for me. They gave me that chance to speak with Williamson and without them, this would have probably never happened. What I learned from that episode is that you can get a lot of opportunities and this is a life experience that I will remember forever.
The Sports Diplomacy Connection
My experience helps me understand American culture better by living alongside Americans for the past six- to seven years. I've visited different states like California, Texas, and now Tennessee, and they are all three different places geographically and culturally. All this happens because of basketball. Without it I would not have had the chance to live in this many places or had the chance to discover cities like Las Vegas.
“Americans also love croissants, they love destroying our beautiful letter “R” when pronouncing “croissant,” but most of them never had a real one because the ones that they sell definitely doesn’t taste like ours 😜”
U.S. culture is actually really different from the French one because Americans love to celebrate every holiday, especially Thanksgiving, which is a really big deal here. They make sure that you have somewhere to go and food on your plate and you have a table with all types of food.
Basketball here is a big deal; so are sports in general, but basketball is the reason why I am here. Basketball gives me the chance to be a student athlete and live the “American Dream” that we see in the movies. Your class is adapted to a schedule to be able to go to school and still practice. You also have teachers that understand that you are tired because of practice or have to go away for a game and be gone for a couple of days. They will work with you so that you can stay on top of your classwork, because the United States has a great scholarship system that helps me to attend school and play basketball at the same time. I had to have good grades to play basketball, and work pretty hard at basketball for them to keep that scholarship to be able to attend school for free, because one thing about school down here is that it’s really expensive and a lot of students end up having debt paying their school after graduating 10-20 years later.
I also have my teammates with whom I spend most of my time outside of being on the court; they’ve become like family. Having a team full of Americans is really funny because they all really like to impresses and come to you with so much conviction that they will speak French by the end of the year… but end up giving up by week one because French so hard and, the way we use the letter “R” is weird and that we use “le” and “la” makes no sense lol!!
Mapping the Connection
From Paris, France to Tennessee
For Further Reading
[E] “University of Tennessee-Martin Women’s Basketball Announces the Addition of Five Players to 2023 Recruiting Class,” April 17, 2023.
How to Cite This Entry
Minthe, Mah. “Voices: Mah Minthe,” FranceAndUS, https://www.franceussports.com/voices/036-mah-minthe. (date of consultation).