Mike Ochereobia on Sheffield Sharks' brotherhood and his late start in basketball

The 35-year-old Londoner might not have been the splashiest of acquisitions Sheffield Sharks made in their summer overhaul, and he may not be a regular in the starting five, but he has become a key ingredient as they challenge for silverware on two fronts.

Having played on three different teams across six years in British basketball’s top flight - one of them in Cheshire provides Friday night’s opposition - power forward Ochereobia has a handle on what a successful team needs.

“Having a healthy locker room is the single-most important thing. Everybody gets along with each other, we’re like a brotherhood,” says Ochereobia of the Sharks camaraderie.

“And that’s very important, myself being a vet I look at my role as coming in and motivating the guys, it’s my job to see that if their head’s dropping or they’re slacking, I’m there to pick them up.

“When we’re practicing we go 100 per cent because you practice how you play.

“Being coachable is also important. None of us are arrogant enough to think we can’t be coached; we all want to learn, we’re all sponges. We can take criticism. That’s important, nobody’s ego is too big. We’re all on a level playing field and humble.

“I’m 35 but you never stop learning in this game, just like you never stop learning in life.”

The oldest player on the team, he was also the latest to the game. Ochereobia didn’t play basketball until a friend invited him to a session in Tottenham when he was 17.

A footballer and a boxer at the time, he fell in love with basketball and quickly caught up. He went to Hackney College and then to Spain to further his education before spending four years in America, first at a junior college and then at a Division One school.

“Everything moved really quickly,” says Ochereobia, who spent a year playing in Senegal last year, reconnecting with his African roots.

“People ask, what if you started at an earlier age? But I don’t tend to think like that, it’s God’s plan, I started when I started and the path he’s laid out for me was the path I’ve gone down.

“And now I’m 35, feeling like there’s a good few years left in me. In order to stay young the mind has to stay young, so I’m very playful. I take life seriously when I need to, but for the most part I’m an easy-going guy who likes to play around a lot with the guys in the locker room. I’m goofy, I make a lot of jokes.”

On playing in Africa, Ochereobia adds: “When the opportunity came up I was like, do you know what, I’ve got to go for it. You only get to live this life once and I would rather do it than think what if.

“I’m happy I did it, it was my first time over in Africa and it was amazing.”