Eduardo Najera: you can't keep a good man down: forward for the Dallas Mavericks

Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino, Dec, 2002 by Patrick Ridgell

It happened in March 1999. It was the NCAA basketball tournament, college basketball's annual gala that dominates the nation's sporting scene for three adventurous weeks. March madness they call it. And on national television, in the sort of high-stakes game between the University of Oklahoma and Michigan State University that lucky fans will brag about having attended for years to come, Eduardo Najera lay prone on the wooden court, knocked out cold.

Doctors and trainers hovered over Oklahoma's 6-foot-8 star power forward. The hit Najera took while setting a pick on Michigan State guard Mateen Cleaves was brutal. In newspaper reports following the game, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo called it the hardest hit he had ever seen on a basketball court. Cleaves, whose elbow caught Najera's chin when the two collided, said tie felt like he had run into a brick wall. Play ceased for eight minutes before Najera got to his feet and wobbled to the bench. It took six stitches to close a gash in Najera's lip, and he also suffered a concussion and a bruised sternum. But five minutes of game time elapsed and then Najera re-entered the game. Want to know what was the first thing he did upon returning? He set another pick.

Apparently, you can't keep Najera down for long.

Najera signed a new six-year contract with the Dallas Mavericks worth $24 million prior to the start of this season, his third in the National Basketball Association, that he says keeps him on track to play in the league for ten years. Lasting that long in the NBA is one of his goals. And he appears well on his way to reaching it.

Meanwhile, Najera has become one of Mexico's most recognizable athletes. In his home state of Chihuahua, Najera, 26, is revered among Mexico's biggest sports celebrities, up there with the great boxer Julio Cesar Chavez and former major league pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, who spawned Fernando-mania in the early 1980s. His games are regularly aired on television, and his picture frequently makes its way onto the local sports pages. He's an athlete whom marketers in the United States and Latin America see as someone who can bridge demographics.

Research from the 2000 census indicates that this country's Hispanic community has grown by 58 percent since 1990, making it close to this nation's largest minority. The Wall Street Journal estimated that the purchasing power of the Latino community this year will be more than $350 billion. And Najera is the man Nike Inc., Anheuser Busch, Bimbo, PepsiCo Inc., Nokia Corp., General Motors Corp., and others hire to speak for them.

Why?

There are several things to know about Najera. While he can certainly take a hit--as evidenced by his work in the 1999 NCAAs--he's not quite that easy to peg. He is the only Mexican-born player in the NBA right now and widely considered to be the finest basketball player that country has ever produced. As the second Mexican to ever play in the NBA and the second ever to he drafted by the league, he is shattering stereotypes.

"Many people are seeing that you do not have to be the most talented player to play in the NBA--anyone can do it, if and when he has a passion for the sport, and that's what I want to show Mexicans," Najera says. "Work, discipline, and effort. And that goes for any aspect of life."

In the summer of 2000, the Houston Rockets chose Najera with the draft's 38th pick. Houston later traded him to the Dallas Mavericks, where Najera spent his first two seasons in the league. As a collegian at Oklahoma, Najera received the Chip Hilton Player of the Year Award from the Basketball Hall of Fame for the character he has shown on and off the court.

Nike Inc. plastered Najera on the sides of Mexico City skyscrapers. He is the focal point of an $8.5 million campaign by America Movil S.A., which owns Telcel, Mexico's biggest mobile phone provider. As a spokesperson for Nike Inc. and Anheuser Busch Co., Najera promotes the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. The Wall Street Journal reported in February 2002 that Najera is among a select group of athletes who earn $1 minion annually in endorsements. He, in fact, made more money last year as a pitchman than for his on-court deeds. And, yes, there is even an Eduardo Najera bobble-head doll.

Najera helped Mexico to a fourth place finish in the 1999 World Games. He was a third-team All-American at Oklahoma, where he is among the program's all-time top ten in scoring, rebounds, and minutes played. As a pro, his playing time and productivity are increasing with each season, and Dallas, a team that believes it can supplant the Los Angeles Lakers atop the NBA, believes Najera is a vital part of its plans. Not bad for a kid who didn't pick up a basketball until he was 15.

"I was just another basketball player who was tall and talented. I had no way of knowing that I would get this far, because I started from the bottom--on the bench," Najera says. He actually started a little further down than that. Najera, if anything, has followed a path to this point that sharply contrasts with the one most NBA players take. He was not pampered. From the time he was 12, he was not told that athletic stardom was his destiny. And there was no support group around that idolized his every move.