There is nothing Mustapha Farrakhan can or would do about his name. He is the grandson of the controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. If you want to talk religion or Louis, then go to the source.
Mustapha Farrakhan, a 6-foot-4 guard from Virginia, is trying to forge his own path, one that leads to the NBA.
“If they come up to me, I’m not him. If you have a question about him, you should ask him. I love him to death. I have a great religious background,” Farrakhan said yesterday after his draft workout with the Nets. “I’m going to focus in on bettering myself on the basketball court and get better every day.”
But Farrakhan admits many see the name first, the player second.
“That’s who I am, though. It’s nothing wrong with that,” he said. “But I know by me coming to workouts like this or showcasing my abilities, it’s a little more than my last name out there.”
The Nets — who own the No. 27 and No. 36 picks in Thursday’s draft — saw a basketball player, not a relative of a religious figure, working out along with guards Travis Leslie of Georgia, Ben Hansbrough of Notre Dame and Dwight Hardy of St. John’s, forward Greg Washington of Hofstra and center Bangaly Fofana of France.
“I was impressed with him, I really was,” Nets general manager Billy King said of Farrakhan, who averaged 13.5 points per game this past season as a senior. “He competed. I like his athletic ability.”
After his seventh workout for an NBA team, Farrakhan knows one of the first people who will hear all about it and offer advice is his grandfather.
“I talk to him a lot. He gives me positive advice. It’s just like your grandfather. You talk to him, check on him, see how he’s doing,” Farrakhan said. “He’s a huge sports fan. If I tell him I have a workout, he’ll have the butterflies more than me: ‘May God bless you and just work hard.’ I talk to him after it and tell him how I did, and he’s always telling me positive stuff and just to keep working hard.”
And the advice the younger Farrakhan has received is sound for any generation: “Treat other people how you want to be treated. Freedom, justice and equality for everybody. It doesn’t matter what race, whatever class or wherever you’re from, you just treat people the right way. That’s how I live my life, and that’s my motto.”