At 29, Valentin Moniquet is living his dream. He, the former basketball player, rubs shoulders with NBA stars as a physiotherapist. Our compatriot is part of the Oklahoma City Thunder staff. This summer he welcomed another Belgian to the franchise: Ajay Mitchell.
Valentin describes his journey as “classic”. “I studied in Liège, then I started working with my dad in his office. I learned quite a bit. And then I wanted to see something else. There was a little voice telling me that there might be good careers to be had in the United States. I applied for a small job at the University of Iowa. Afterwards, I applied to the Oklahoma City Thunder. There were 450 of us who took the interviews and I got the job. I really wanted to get there. As long as the 30 NBA teams hadn’t said no to me, for me it was still possible“, he tells David Bertrand.
Basketball and the NBA, he didn’t get there by chance. “When I was little, I obviously dreamed of playing in the NBA. But I quickly realized that this would not be possible. I played basketball. I was in sports studies basketball. I didn’t really know which study to turn to. And I noticed very quickly that we could combine physiotherapy and basketball. These are two passions that I managed to bring together. You have to be able to turn your dreams into goals“.
