How a Former NBA Player Made Baylor Basketball Worse
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In December 2025, Baylor basketball was gearing up to head into the most difficult conference slate the program had ever seen. Sitting at an 8-2 record heading into the Christmas break, the Bears knew if they were to keep their winning ways up, some holes needed to be filled.
Rumors had been circling the team concerning the mid-season addition of a lob-threat and defensive anchor that could fill the hole of Juslin Bodo Bodo, who suffered a season ending injury. Mid-season additions that are eligible to play immediately as well as valuable enough to make a true impact are rare.
Then Baylor signed 2023 NBA draft second round pick James Nnaji.
Nnaji, a 7’1” center labeled as a defensive monster and rim runner, checked off one of the crucial boxes needed for a mid-season addition. Nnaji was immediately eligible to join the Bears ahead of conference play. Unfortunately, he was not categorized as a directly valuable on-court presence for the Bears.
Nnaji donned a Baylor jersey for the first time on January 3rd against TCU. The center’s Big 12 debut was welcomed with boos and jeers aplenty from the Fort Worth crowd as Nnaji’s untraditional route to the sport quickly made him a villain on the court.
Baylor fans welcomed the controversy of signing an NBA draft pick out of belief that a player who had held Victor Wembanyama to 2-13 from the floor in an NBA summer league would be a star at the college level.
Nnaji's struggles in a green and gold
The Nigerian’s time in Waco did not alas reward the blind faith of Baylor fans.
In his first game in a Baylor uniform, Nnaji had 5 points and 4 rebounds in 16 minutes in a 69-63 loss. That was his best stat line of the season.
Throughout the first half of conference play, head coach Scott Drew repeatedly tried to give Nnaji opportunities to add production to the Bears, but as the team continued to fall short of expectations, so did Nnaji.
In a January 16th trip to Kansas, the Allen Fieldhouse crowd repeatedly erupted out of their seats as Kansas center Flory Bidunga punched home dunk after dunk over Nnaji in the 80-62 loss for the Bears.
Following the game, Bidunga was asked about his matchup and poster show he put on against a former NBA draft pick.
“Wait...which dunk are you asking about,” Bidunga said. “I had so many I honestly forgot which was which.”
By the end of the season, Nnaji had completely vanished from the Bears’ regular rotation and became a permanent figure at the end of the bench.
Why the Nnaji experiment didn't work for Baylor
The James Nnaji experiment failed at Baylor for a multitude of reasons.
For one, the FC Barcelona alum came to the Bears with a lingering lower back injury that he had not properly recovered from. This injury hindered not just his vertical movement but also his on-court speed and severely affected Nnaji’s conditioning.
Furthermore, Drew and his staff made a risky play with the pursuit of a midseason addition. Built on the back of a shortened scouting window, any addition ahead of conference play would have been a gamble.
Nnaji is not a bad basketball player. Anybody who is 7’1” with a 7’7” wingspan and weighing in at 250 pounds has the potential to dominate a basketball court. Which is what Nnaji did in Europe.
His biggest flaw in Waco was a pure unfamiliarity with the nature and pace of the college game combined with Baylor’s desperation to “win-now.”
Baylor needed an immediate impact, while it was clear that Nnaji was a project to take on from the moment he touched the hardwood.
The relationship between Nnaji and Baylor almost seemed doomed from the start. The expectations of the program did not meet what the player needed to thrive at the time.
A bad date does not take someone out of the game but rather encourages them to look for a better fitting partner. Baylor and James Nnaji spent the second half of the season experiencing their own bad first date, resulting in both parties realizing they needed to find something different.
Now committed to George Mason, I believe that Nnaji will pan out to be a competent starting center in college basketball. With time and experience, the Nigerian center who has dominated European basketball for the past three years will take over the Atlantic 10 conference in due time.
The James Nnaji experiment at Baylor failed, yet that does not mean that James Nnaji is a failure.
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Dylan is a class of '26 graduate from Baylor and is now pursuing his JD at the University of Massachusetts School of Law. A born and raised Baylor fan, Dylan served as a sportswriter for the Baylor Lariat from 2025-2026, where he won the TIPA award for second-best sports story of 2025. His favorite writing memory was getting the chance to interview both Darryn Peterson and Bill Self at Allen Fieldhouse. In his free time, Dylan can almost always be found playing pickup basketball.
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