Otto: Uganda’s best-ever female basketballer? 

The Gazelles’ Jannon Otto has joined Spanish side, Baloncesto Bembibre.

It is a team in Spain’s top flight, which according to the Bleacher Report, is ranked as only second to the NBA in the United States of America.

This makes Otto the first Gazelle (Uganda women’s national basketball team) to ply her trade at such a high level of professional basketball. From now, Otto will be contesting with opponents whose performances have ensured that Spain are ranked fourth in the world by Fiba.

This development comes on the back of Otto’s exploits for Uganda at the Fiba Women’s Afrobasket Championship, that took place between July 28 and August 5 in Kigali, Rwanda.

Otto made it to the team of the tournament, as one of the best five players in the week-long championship. Otto was the first-ever Ugandan female basketball player to realize such success, leaving the question on whether she is the “Greatest of All Time” (Goat), to wear the Gazelles jersey thus far.

“Without a doubt, Otto is the best female basketball player Uganda has ever had,” Mandy Juruni, the coach of City Oilers and the men’s national team, the Silverbacks, said.

Juruni added that she is the most complete he has seen both defensively and offensively because she is able to score from all three levels; inside the paint, mid-range and from outside at the perimeter.

To make sense of this all, Otto did not only make the best five at the AfroBasket; she was also the tournament’s top-scorer with 128 points in six games, beating more seasoned competitors from Senegal and Nigeria, a number of whom play basketball in the USA.

That aside, coach Brian Rugyendo noted that considering that Otto has only been on the Uganda basketball scene since February, it may be too early to declare her the greatest.

But he still believes Otto made the Gazelles look so good, more than anyone else has ever done. Indeed Otto’s impact on the Gazelles in a short spell cannot be emphasized enough. She took to the team like a duck to water, just after one training session, when she arrived for the Fiba Women’s Afrobasket qualifiers in February that Uganda hosted.

At the end of those qualifiers, she was named among the best five players. Basketball coach, Tom Ocamringa noted: “Good players make those around them better, and that is what Otto has shown. Although she has not played with her teammates for long, she has shown good adaptability, which is proof of how intelligent she is as a basketball player.”

Interestingly, Otto’s mother, Kelly Hennessy, who is a professional teacher, and actually the person who first coached her basketball, told this newspaper from her home in California: “I thoroughly enjoyed watching the AfroBasket. But even more pleased that Jannon [Otto] was given this chance to play for Uganda with such terrific players.”

Uganda finished seventh out of 12 teams as a result; an improvement from their maiden outing in 2015, when Cameroon hosted the tournament. Then, captained by Vicky Nassolo and coached by Timothy Odeke, the Gazelles finished tenth out of 12. Of Otto, Odeke said she
played with grace, and also worked very hard.

Beyond all the praise Otto’s fine display for the Gazelles has attracted, she said she never knew she would be this happy playing for Uganda.

She added: “My Gazelles teammates have made me better. I feel so Ugandan now, and if we can get more government support, this team can achieve a lot.”

Notably, the fact that Otto was born and raised in the USA, is one key aspect that cannot be discounted in regards to how good a player she is. It is different for a Ugandan player, who is in a society with little or no infrastructure and facilities. In relation to that, Juruni said Otto’s shooting, dribbling and positioning are all a result of top training.