By Five Boro Sports
Sonny Kadisha is quiet by nature. He speaks in hushed tones and lets his actions, shrugs and facial expressions speak rather than his words.
“He doesn’t really say much,” said Ben Chobhaphand, his high school coach at Forest Hills. “He goes with the flow.”
It is why many that know Kadisha — who was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — aren’t aware of his basketball bloodlines.
His second cousin is Dikembe Mutumbo, the Houston Rockets’ reserve center, who is in his 18th NBA season. Mutumbo, a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, is almost a certain future Hall of Famer.
“Thanks for telling me,” yelled Lowell Ulmer, Kadisha’s teammate on the Long Island Lightning, after finding out Saturday. “I want to work out with him.”
Kadisha, a 6-foot-4 forward from Lefrak City, helped Forest Hills win its first Queens crown and make the PSAL Class AA quarterfinals in March, averaging five points and four rebounds per game. A junior, he was often overlooked by scorers Andre Armstrong, Alex Hall and Maurice Harkless.
Kadisha, a hustling, rebounding, defensive specialist, did the dirty work, a la Mutumbo.
“I got it from him,” said Kadisha, who scored 18 points to lead the Long Island Lightning past the N.J. Trailblazers 68-59 in the IS8/Nike Spring H.S. Classic in Queens. “That’s all he talks about.”
“He does all the intangibles on the court,” Ulmer said of Kadisha.
Kadisha doesn’t mind his less glamorous role, shrugging his shoulders. He likes playing defense and rebounding, skills he learned from Mutumbo. The two first met when Kadisha was 5. He didn’t know his second cousin was famous until, while watching television one day, his father, Illunga Kadisha, pointed out the 7-foot-3 center blocking shots and wagging his finger.
Kadisha began mimicking the motion, but soon stopped, at Mutumbo’s request.
“He said, ‘Don’t copy me,’” Kadisha recalled.
Now, he will only wag his finger after a blocked shot in practice.
The two, Kadisha said, have a good relationship, one predicated on basketball and academics. Mutumbo lectures Kadisha on working hard and studying. Kadisha has a 75 average; Mutumbo wants it higher. It’s no surprise, then, that Chobhaphand praised Kadisha’s work ethic, as did Shandue McNeill, his Long Island Lightning coach.
“Nobody,” McNeill said, “plays harder than him.”
This summer, Kadisha is working on expanding his offensive game. With Hall and Armstrong, two of Forest Hills’ leading scorers, graduating, there will be an offensive void that needs to be filled. Kadisha is working relentlessly on his jump shot and ball handling under the guidance of McNeill.
“He has a soft touch, he’s a great finisher,” McNeill said. “He makes a lot of difficult shots look easy.”
Kadisha follows Mutumbo on television and goes to his games in New York, New Jersey and sometimes Philadelphia. They spend a lot of time together in the summer, often playing impromptu games of one-on-one. Mutumbo used to block almost every one of Kadisha’s drives so he would spend time shooting jumpers.
Mutumbo is Kadisha’s idle, and not just on the basketball court. He often talks about going home and building hospitals like Mutumbo has done.
“He’s come from nothing to become one of the [NBA’s best defensive players],” he said. “It motivates me. If he can do it, I can do it.”
