Musa Jallow and a former UNC-Charlotte basketball teammate were lounging on the beach in Malta when a thought hit him like a screen someone didn’t call out.
They shared an apartment just 30 yards from the Mediterranean Sea. When they weren’t busy at practice or playing a game for the Starlites professional basketball team in Naaxar, they usually were looking for a good restaurant or sunning on the sand.
“We were lying on the beach and we just looked at each other and started laughing,” Jallow said. “What is going on? How did we end up here? We were just saying that the whole time.
“Every time I was in a layup line, ‘How did this happen?’ I was working in an ICU a couple months ago. It’s surreal. That’s the only word for it.”
The surreal only doubled when this out-of-the-blue pipe dream started with a win in the Super Cup Final and ended up with Jallow as the championship series MVP.
A few years ago, Jallow was a former college athlete, repairing his body from several debilitating injuries. He was planning a new career in medicine.
Now, he’s a legitimate professional basketball prospect, spending a summer of training in Bloomington with plans to head back overseas to a more competitive league.
“Good luck putting all that into a concise story for the paper!” Jallow said after a thorough interview.
Like Jallow, we’ll give it a shot. Here we go. Angelo Pizzo, take note.
Star-crossed college career
Jallow left Bloomington North a year early to enroll at Ohio State in 2017, coming off a junior year in which he averaged 24.1 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.8 steals.
Then new Buckeye coach Chris Holtmann was in need of players for his rebuild and asked the 6-foot-5, 200-pound Jallow if he wanted to jump right in. Jallow had done the work to earn enough credits to graduate early and did so.
“I’ve been preparing for this since I started playing basketball. I knew what I wanted to do,” Jallow said at the time.
His freshman year went well, starting his career with a 13-point, six-rebound game against Texas Southern. As a sophomore, he played 35 games with 13 starts. But then the injuries started to manifest themselves.
Jallow lost his junior year due to surgery to fix bone spurs in his right ankle. He then had surgery on his right hand ahead of his senior campaign.
“It was time to move on,” Jallow said.
While there were on-court struggles, what he gained by being at Ohio State off the court was invaluable.
“I don’t know if there’s enough paper and ink to say all I took away,” Jallow said. “I learned a lot. It was definitely a challenge, and I got to see a different side of myself and the world. It was a great experience and made lifetime friends and great connections.”
After four years in Columbus, Jallow needed a fresh start. Charlotte was the place to do it.
“I knew the coach (Ron Sanchez) and he allowed me the time and space to get healthy and try to contribute,” Jallow said.
Neither ankle was doing well, though. He finally debuted in December, playing 10 games before tearing his ACL.
More surgery. More doubt. A third surgery on his right ankle in May. Fixing a ligament on his left ankle next. Three total surgeries in a 100-day span.
As much as Jallow loved basketball, it sure felt like it wasn’t loving him back.
“It was extremely tough,” Jallow said. “Basketball, since I started playing, it was my No. 1 dream. I definitely idolized being successful in basketball. … It was kind of like a mountain had broken down for me. I had to re-evaluate things. What is my purpose?”
‘Time to hang it up’
That question lingered for a bit, and it appeared he had found his answer.
“What are the things I care about outside of the game?” Jallow asked himself. “What really matters in life? I had to pick myself back up from rock bottom with a support group and things I did outside of basketball. I was rock bottom, but it was a good place to be in terms of opportunities I still had at my fingertips.”
Over Christmas break, Jallow was playing some 1-on-1. Five minutes after, he could hardly walk. He ended up not being able to fly home to see his family, which still resides in Bloomington. He couldn’t get through the airport.
“Coach told me it was time to move on,” Jallow said. “Hang it up and go be a doctor.”
Upon returning to Columbus, Jallow was sure his days in a uniform were done. He took a job at Ohio State University Hospital, doing rehab with cardiac pulmonary patients. A different ex-teammate with the 49ers had helped him come to peace with his decision to move on from the game he loves.
“He was in the ministry and had been witness to me for two years,” Jallow said. “I got involved in the church and decided to pick up a Bible and read it for myself. I talked to God a whole lot and came to terms.”
There were things he couldn’t control, but even the things he could wouldn’t guarantee anything.
“My faith was a huge grounding point to even have that perspective,” Jallow said. “Before that, my thinking was you put in the work, extra work and more work and get the results. It seemed like a simple math problem: work harder than the next guy and you’re going to win. That’s not necessarily how the Lord works.”
A lot physical healing took place, too.
His first year back in Columbus, he hit the weight room, avoiding any running and jumping. A few days working out with the current OSU team reminded him he wasn’t used to lifting like a D-I athlete anymore.
“It was a definite wake-up call,” Jallow said.
There was a pro-am Kingdom League in Columbus that summer, and he felt well enough to play. He also jumped into pickup games once a week with old college players and high school coaches from the area. He also helped coach a high school team and would scrimmage with the players
“I did alright, health-wise,” Jallow said. “I was just playing the game for fun at that point.”
No, it wasn’t high level ball, but there were reminders he still had it.
“Every time I’d play pickup, someone would say, ‘You need to still be playing,'” Jallow said. “It is what it is. Even in the hospital, co-workers would look at me and tell me I should be a professional athlete, not a rehab guy. That hurt the ego, for sure, but at the time, it was not up to me.
“I definitely had a lot of ego checks the last couple of years.”
But the compliments, even backhanded, were reassurances. So was the fact his body was finally holding up. As “delusional” as he had been when he was younger about how far he could go in basketball, at 26, there was a glimmer of hope.
The plan was to work at the hospital for two years, then apply to medical school.
Then, one Facetime call changed everything.
‘Take that spot!’
A trip to Europe was in the back of Jallow’s mind. He was considering taking a couple months off from work and school to travel and take a break before diving into medical school.
Then came the call from former Charlotte teammate Jackson Threadgill, who happened to play for the Starlites in Malta. They needed another player. Was he interested?
“‘Sure, I’ll play,’ I said, not thinking much about it,” Jallow said.
The Starlites coach called the next morning and offered Jallow a spot. At first, he said no. Then Jallow reached out to a few friends who set him straight.
“You’re an idiot. You worked 20 years to get to this point. Take that spot!” Jallow recalls them saying.
Jallow called the coach back, and the flight was booked. The next week, he packed up and informed his boss at the hospital he was leaving. The plane landed, the coach picked him up. Jallow shoved down some coffee and something to eat and was at practice a couple hours later after 15 hours of travel.
Three days later, on Sept. 28, 2025, he was recording 17 points, five rebounds and six steals as Starlite won the Super Cup Final for the third year in a row. Two weeks later, the regular season got under way.
“I had no expectations,” Jallow said. ” … For me, probably the best case scenario was I’d take it all in, play for a year, six months, and enjoy it as a gift from the Lord. And that’s exactly what I did.”
Malta’s Most Valuable Player
After a two-week break in the season, Jallow resumed playing for the Starlites. Malta was the perfect place to dip his toe into the waters of pro basketball. Beautiful island, diverse culture, great food and a team that went 15-0 in the regular season. Plus, English was a second language behind Maltese, so communication was easy.
“I got extremely lucky,” Jallow said. “All the people were extremely nice and supportive. It was a fun environment. It was almost like an AAU or college team.”
The team played once a week in a league with six teams, each one with two or three American imports as allowed by rule. It allowed his body to ease back into it, which was a concern from the start.
“Oh, 100%,” Jallow said. “At that level, we didn’t have great medical supervision, so this was a test, if I was ordained by the Lord to see it through. I worked with a (physical therapist), just basic stuff to keep me up. No tape or braces, just ibuprofen before games.
“I missed one game when the coach wanted to rest me against the worst team in the league. Other than that, I played every single game and averaged (30.5) minutes. I was hanging in there.”
There were some adjustments, such as having to pay attention again when a coach was drawing up plays or a defensive scheme and picking up the terminology. But it was all second nature by that point.
He ended up averaging 18 points, 10.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 2.4 steals and 1.3 blocks per game and shot 57% from the field and 72% at the line as Starlight rolled into the Super League finals against Hibernian.
Starlite swept the first three games as Jallow went 18-of-25 from the field, scoring 46 points and grabbing 24 rebounds. Starlite dropped Game 4, but bounced back in a big way to clinch the title, 98-77, as Jallow exploded for 25 points (going 11-of-16) with nine rebounds, five assists and four steals.
Jallow was named the finals MVP.
After thinking this would be a summer to get ready to attend medical school in Arizona, Jallow is thinking one thing: how good can I be with a full summer of training?
All of a sudden, he’s come full circle. Back in the summer of 2017, he was sweating through workouts at Teamwork Bloomington to meet the challenge of the jump from high school to college as a junior. Now, he’s back in town doing the same thing, only this time to rise higher in the pro ranks.
“I’ve signed with an agent and I’m working on finding teams in Europe or Asia, wherever,” Jallow said. “I’ve got film and tape and highlight reels and videos I’m putting out there, but mostly letting my agent take care of it.
“At this point, the thing I can control best is what I did last season. What I did was leaving everything up to God.”
At the same time, he’s held up his part of the bargain. That is how he got here. Leaning on his faith and family who never stopped believing, either.
“At face value, it was not a logical decision,” Jallow said. “(My family) also saw that my whole entire life was dedicated to this sport. … They saw all the sacrifice and now, I’m living the dream, just a smaller version of it.”
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington’s Musa Jallow rekindles his pro basketball dreams in Malta
Reporting by Jim Gordillo, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jim Gordillo, The Herald-Times | USA TODAY Network
