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Samuel Vessat is a 19-year-old international basketball player living in Limerick who has been declared for the NBA draft 2022. Photo: Michelle La Grue. Samuel Vessat is a 19-year-old international basketball player living in Limerick who has been declared for the NBA draft 2022. Photo: Michelle La Grue.

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20-year-old Limerick based basketball player Samuel Vessat has been declared for the NBA 2022 draft!

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Samuel Vessat is a 20-year-old international basketball player living in Limerick who has been declared for the NBA draft 2022. Photo: Michelle La Grue.

Samuel Vessat has lived in Limerick for a year and trains regularly in the city with his coach

By I Love Limerick correspondent Ava O’Donoghue

Samuel Vessat
Samuel has made huge sacrifices throughout his basketball career, travelling to four different countries such as France, Switzerland, the US, and Ireland.

A 20-year-old international basketball player living in Limerick, Samuel Vessat, has been declared for the NBA 2022 draft.


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This is a huge achievement for the French player, who chose to train in Limerick after his move to a Canadian prep school was cancelled due to Covid. 

Samuel has lived in Limerick for a year and trains three times a day in the city with his coach.

Samuel has had a passion for basketball since the age of three, inspired by his father who was also a basketball player, but retired when Samuel was born.

Earlier in his career, Samuel joined the Parisian club Levallois where he was taken under the wing of legendary coach Ron Stewart, who previously trained French basketball player Tony Parker – who went on to win four NBA championship titles – and Joakim Noah, who was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2014.

“He is very serious about basketball and very serious about how to become a good basketball player. You can see that in how he listens to instructions and how he tries to execute in the best way he can,” Ron said of Samuel.

Samuel has made huge sacrifices throughout his basketball career, travelling to train in France, Switzerland, the US and Ireland.

At Samuel’s age, his skills are truly out of the ordinary and even after a one-year injury he returned to the courts with an average of 38.1 points, 11.6 rebounds, 4.6 steals and 7.5 assists per game.

The highlight of Samuels’s career so far was being accepted into a Canadian college to play basketball. After seeing how proud his family was of him, he hopes to still travel there in the future.

For Samuel, being declared for the NBA is just the beginning as now the hard work begins. He will show his skills to different coaches who will judge him to see if he has the potential to move up the ranks.

Samuel believes that when someone has a passion, they should “never stop chasing their dreams and go out and get it. There are no limits in life, and everything is possible when you put the work in”.

Congratulations to Samuel on this huge achievement. I Love Limerick wishes him all the best in pursuing his bright future!

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Richard is a presenter, producer, songwriter and actor. He was named the Limerick Person of the Year (2011) and won an online award at the Metro Éireann Media and Multicultural Awards (2011) for promoting multi-culturalism online. Richard says that the ilovelimerick.com concept is very much a community driven project that aims to document life in Limerick. So, that in 20 years time people can look back and remember the events that were making the headlines.