RABAT, Morocco – Wearing a hat over his braids and enjoying an espresso, John Jordan was plain clothed when a curious barista smiled and asked, “Don’t you play for FUS?”
Jordan responded, “Yes I do.”
“You are very good,” the barista replied. “May I take a picture with you?”
“Of course,” Jordan said.
Back home in America, Jordan’s basketball resume includes being a former Texas A&M-Corpus Christi guard who won a championship and slam dunk contest in the NBA G League. But in Morocco’s capitol city, the 5-foot-10 guard is a basketball player suiting up locally with Fath Union Sport (FUS) Rabat. There is heightened interest in Jordan and FUS in Morocco and Africa as they are playing against teams from Egypt, Mali and Nigeria here in the Basketball Africa League’s Kalahari Conference.
“I get recognized everywhere on the streets in Rabat,” Jordan, 32, told Andscape on Wednesday morning. “Everywhere in grocery stores, I get stopped and take pictures. The DMs on Instagram are crazy. And so, especially for the BAL to be here, it is like that times four. Now, I look at my analytics on Instagram. I got 200,000 views in the last 20 days, 200,000 clicks on my profile. I probably get anywhere from 50 to a 100 DMs every night after every game just from kids on Snapchat, Facebook, everywhere…
“Morocco is definitely a football [soccer] country. But basketball is growing crazy right now because obviously the BAL came here, bringing exposure to the sport. You see these kids are going crazy for it and are in the streets playing. These kids really, really want to play basketball.”
The Missouri City, Texas, native starred at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi from 2011-15 and was named to the Islanders’ Hall of Honor. After going undrafted by the NBA in 2015, he spent two seasons playing in the G League for the Delaware Blue Coats, Erie BayHawks and Raptors 905. Jordan won a 2017 G League championship with the 905 and also the G League dunk contest. He also played with former Raptors guard Fred VanVleet, now with the Houston Rockets, with the 905.
G Leaguers not under an NBA contract were making between $19,500 and $26,000 back when Jordan was in the minor league. There were no Two-Way or Exhibit 10 contracts that could substantially improve your salary at that time. Reflecting back on a potential NBA dream that never came true, Jordan wishes he were a little more patient with the 905 in hopes of being promoted to the Toronto Raptors who he believed liked small guards like VanVleet.
“I think I could have given myself a shot with [the Toronto Raptors] if I would’ve stayed another year. But obviously, I wanted to start making a little bit more money. At that time, the G League salary was very, very low,” Jordan said.
To answer his hopes of getting paid better, Jordan went to Europe from 2017 to 2023. He played in Finland, Belgium, Poland, Germany, Serbia (twice) and Romania.
“I’ve been on a run. Finland, Belgium, Poland, Germany, all over Europe and now we here in Morocco,” Jordan said. “So, it’s just been up and down. But it’s been beautiful. It’s a journey. You go from here to there, there to here, and now we’re back [in Morocco]. So, it’s been good.”
Marc J. Spears
In 2023, Jordan added a new country to his list by joining FUS, a multi-sports club founded in 1946 and one of the oldest in Morocco. It is a men’s basketball powerhouse with 29 trophies, according to the BAL. Morocco’s late King Mohammed V insisted that the word “Fath,” which is defined as major victory in Arabic, be a part of the name of the club.
Jordan signed with FUS for their 2023-24 season and got his wish of playing for the BAL after helping the club qualify for the 2024 BAL season through the Road to BAL tournament. FUS won the Kalahari Conference in Pretoria, South Africa, last year with a 3-1 record. FUS, however, was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the playoffs during a 91-88 loss to the Cape Town Tigers in Kigali, Rwanda.
Jordan also led FUS back to the BAL for the 2025 season through the Road to BAL. This season, the top two BAL teams in each of the three four-team divisions playing in Rabat; Kigali; and Dakar, Senegal; qualify along with two wild cards for the BAL playoffs in Pretoria. Jordan had 12 points, three rebounds and two steals in a 79-71 loss to the Nigeria River Hoopers on Thursday, but FUS Rabat fell to 1-3 with two games left in conference play.
Jordan said he is confident that FUS will turn things around to make the BAL playoffs. He certainly has done his part so far, averaging 15 points, 6.3 rebounds and 6.0 assists in 32.9 minutes per game through his first three BAL games entering Thursday. Qualifying for the playoffs in South Africa is very important to Jordan considering he turned down several other international opportunities to return to FUS with a BAL title in mind.
“I came back to play in the BAL, to be honest,” Jordan said. “And that’s the real reason I came to this team in the first place. [FUS] was the only team that offered me that had a chance to participate in the BAL.”
FUS is also the 2024 champions of Morocco’s top men’s basketball league, The Division Excellence. Founded in 1934, the 12-team league has two teams each in Rabat, Casablanca and Fez, and one in Sale, Tangier, Larache, Al Hoceima, Marrakech, and Tan-Tan. FUS usually plays in 1,500-seat Salle Abderrahmane Bouânane Arena, which is much smaller than the 10,000-seat Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex Arena used for BAL games.
Jordan said the most unique place he has played on the road in the league is Tan-Tan, a desert town of 73,209 in southwestern Morocco.
“The league has teams in Tangier, Marrakech, Casablanca, even a team in a super small-town way in the desert called Tan-Tan,” Jordan said. “You got to actually take a flight there. It’s just literally a desert city. There is nothing there. But you’re getting to visit this entire country.”
Jordan said he is unmarried, doesn’t have children and would like to play pro basketball four more years. Jordan added that FUS has given him quality accommodations with an apartment and car near his team’s home arena. He says the food appears to be much healthier than back at home, including at McDonald’s.
Jordan said he is truly enjoying life and the people of Rabat.
“It’s a really, really historical club, very professional,” Jordan said about FUS. “Living is good. Apartment is nice. Obviously, I get the full setup when I sign a contract. They gave me a car. Gave me an extra round ticket flight. My payment is always, always on time here obviously at FUS. We’re run by the [Moroccan] king and his family, so, we don’t ever have issues with payments or finances or anything like that. So that’s the best thing. I’ve been on a lot of teams that pay late, but this team would not pay late at all…
“Morocco is a good country though. Really good vibes. The people here are great. The food is good. The weather is good. I really can’t complain about the living here at all. There is a lot of construction here. It’s going to be growing. It’s going to be a formidable place to play in the next five to seven years, especially if they continue to build and invest in the sport of basketball here.”
Marc J. Spears
Jordan would like to continue to play in the BAL and believes players with NBA ties could be on the horizon in the coming years.
“I would say definitely it’s the place to be right now,” Jordan said. “Get in it right now; if there’s an opportunity three to four years from now it’s going to be huge. This is going to be another place to go play when you get out of college if you don’t go to the NBA, if you’re trying to get into the NBA or if you’re a former NBA player trying to get back into [the league]. It’s a great opportunity.
“It’s the EuroLeague of Africa, the best teams. It’s only going to continue to get better. And it’s only going to continue to get more notoriety. And it’s a super-dope league. I’m happy to be a part of it.”