I am not an American. I didn't, I didn't.
I did come to this country, you know.
Akimi looking for opportunities and
I'm trying to find that opportunity.
It has been quite an offseason
for FAFSA abugida the WSU Big
Man has been training in Florida
while deciding between going pro
or returning to the college game.
If he does return to college, though,
the question currently is where he's
narrowed his list down to the coops.
Arizona, Maryland and Florida he's
been in Pullman the last few days
visiting with the staff and we
sat down with him this morning.
My phone was blowing up the first like
the meaning that put my name in the in.
In the photo it was five minutes later.
You're like 10 goals
in total. FA abugida says he
heard from around 140 schools
when he went into the portal.
The Nigerians process getting
down to his final four wasn't
about bells or whistles.
I don't care about your facility.
I don't care about your name.
I don't care about who you know,
who you played or what you guys went
to in International championship
is just who you know really.
Care about me. Who wants me?
Who needs me the most?
And apparently W shoe
has made that very clear.
The four schools were really interested in,
you know, wanted me back.
Especially Washington state
there they really. You know?
They're pushing, pushing real hard.
They feel like this is the right place for
me. You know that they you know. Obviously,
booming is the place I've been for for
two years. I I know,
the coach, I love the coach.
I love the people here.
Those small town.
It's a lovely place to be.
You know, everybody knows
you everybody loves you here,
so all all of that just
being here, you know,
I think something to think about
FA's ultimate goal is to GoPro and that
is top of mind as he weighs his future.
He's hopeful if he returns to school it
will be his last year in the college ranks.
Obviously everyone knows.
I'm really athletic, but nobody
knows how I can stretch the floor.
Something I need to exhibit.
That's that's something that I need to,
you know, show.
If I want to make a next level cause
the next level is all about how?
If you're a big man, how you can?
How can you space the floor? How can
you can you shoot from deep
in the transfer portal?
I'm telling everybody like play
development is what I need.
FA wants one thing to be clear
and IL money has nothing to
do with where he goes next.
When answered the the portal I I
had a lot of, you know messages of
people telling me oh you live in
Washington state because of nil deals
and I saw all that stuff on Twitter.
I'm thinking about my future and
you know how I'm gonna make a pro.
I'm not talking about making initial money.
That's that's not really important to me,
regardless of if FA returns to WSU
goes to another school or goes pro,
he still has perspective on this decision.
In 2017 he tore his ACL, MCL and
meniscus and had to have three surgeries.
It took him 2 1/2 years to fully
recover to be knocking on the door
of going pro and having his pick of
the litter and terms of colleges.
Well, it isn't lost on him.
Saying to imagine that I'm here,
I'm doing all this.
You know, couple years ago I
was in there thinking of playing
basketball at the college level.
I got hurt and I just
went down here in the new
about me. So I'm here right now
and I look back and I'm and
I'm thinking about. You know,
I feel like it's a blessing to just,
you know, have all this.
There's not everything you have,
you gotta cherish it.
No matter what his decision is,
which FA says is coming very soon.
He has a message for the fans who have
cheered him on the last two years.
I used to say this is
always gonna be home for me.
I would always be a cook for life.
That's something I started here
to be stupid chance on me when I had.
You know nobody stole it and
I always wanna always want the fans
to understand when I come back here.
This is, you know, I will
always support Washington state
no matter what because the
matter where I go if I come
back to Washington state.
Like I said, awesome. But
it doesn't matter where I go.
I wanna come back here and be understood.
That I'm Stuart Kruger. No matter what.
Very sincere FA told me that he's
worked out for the Bucks and the Kings
and is going to work out for the
Clippers and potentially the Blazers.
We'll see what his decision is.
We all know Kooks fans
desperately want him back.
He says it's been lovely to see so many WSU
fans reach out via social media.
Certainly we understand why
they want him to come back
as he was a valuable player.
But you were telling us earlier
in the commercial break.
He's 20 years old.
How can you blame him for not
wanting to look and see what the
opportunities are available to him well?
And like he touched on there when he
came out of the high school ranks,
he was barely recruited
because of that injury.
He was basically an unknown
commodity because he had to take
two years off of playing basketball.
So this has been a a really
epic rise for him.
It's incredible for him.
And of course we wish him
the best of luck Brennan.
Thanks very much.