KU basketball player’s grandparents travel from Nigeria to see him play for first time

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Agbaji’s are a big sports family.

Ochai plays basketball at the University of Kansas. His older sister Orie, just finished up her collegiate volleyball career at the University of Texas.

This season, they had their grandparents from Nigeria watching from the stands.

“Definitely before games, I always look up there and I see them walking in or I see them during the game. It’s cool to see how far they came and how far they traveled just to see me play,” Ochai Agbaji said.

Zion and Esther Agbaji were supposed to only stay in the U.S. for a few days, but they are staying as long as they can thanks to their six-month visa.

“When we were coming, we thought we’d only stay three days, but when we come to America, we see so many things,” Esther Agbaji said.

So far, the Agbaji grandparents have been to all of Ochai’s home games at Allen Fieldhouse. During the volleyball season, they even made the trek down to Austin to take in some of Orie’s games with the Longhorns.

“We go and we witness and you can see me shouting at the top of my voice. I say Ochai! Orie! So this is a thing of joy,” Zion Agbaji said.

This Christmas Day will be a special one for the Agbaji’s. Before Ochai’s trip to Nigeria last summer, he hadn’t seen his grandparents since he was 2-years-old.

For Orie, the last time she saw them, she was 5-years-old.

“I think just having everyone together and just showing them how we’ve been doing and just seeing how they’re doing and just reconnecting has been the biggest thing,” Ogbaji said.