HERMOSILLO, Mexico — Less than a block away from the city center, on the concrete court he practiced on as a child, NBA draft prospect and New Zealand Breakers star forward Karim López is bouncing a ball for the cameras. A woman passing by notices the scene and approaches him immediately after she’s sure the cameras have stopped rolling:
“You’re him, aren’t you?”
New Zealand Breakers forward Karim López, a native of Hermosillo, Sonora, is on track to become the first Mexican-born player to be selected in the first round of the NBA draft. Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images
López stops and smiles. The woman puts her hand up to her mouth. “You’re that basketball player, you’re him!” she said in Spanish. She is equally starstruck and confused, aware of being in the presence of a celebrity but not entirely sure of exactly who it is. She’s just nervous and assures the camera crew that his name is on the tip of her tongue.
For López, who ends up posing for a selfie and signing an autograph with the woman, it’s a level of fame he’ll gladly endure at this point, knowing it is quickly evolving. At 6-foot-9, it’s already hard for the 18-year-old to go unnoticed anywhere, especially in his northwest Mexico hometown of Hermosillo, Sonora, located about 300 miles south of Phoenix
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After filming wraps, a group of about a dozen passersby gathers to follow the woman’s lead. There are more selfies and group shots. Even a couple of basketballs are produced for him to sign. While López poses for yet another picture, a man confidently assures his wife that the teen is “a big NBA star.”
Well, not yet.
In just a few months, López could make good on that assertion and become an unmistakable celebrity for millions of fans across Mexico, the U.S. and wherever pro basketball is followed. He is poised to become the first Mexican-born player to go in the first round of the NBA draft and join a handful of players from the country to play there in nearly 80 years.
“I was born playing basketball; I mean, I like to say I had a ball in my hand since the day I was born,” said López in Spanish. The phenom sat down with ESPN to discuss his story for Hispanic Heritage Month.
López’s second — and likely last — season in Australia’s National Basketball League started in September. Over the next few months, NBA scouts will deliver their final verdicts on him. One NBL coach, the Illawarra Hawks’ Justin Tatum — father of Boston Celtics star Jayson — said López is skilled for his age and height, helping him to make an “instant impact” in the Australian league. The teenager’s game has even drawn comparisons to that of Dr. J himself, the legendary Julius Erving.
“His game is well suited to the modern NBA,” ESPN NBA draft analyst Jeremy Woo said. “Teams are constantly looking for tall perimeter players who can pass, handle and shoot.”
Most mock drafts have López going in the top 10, which would easily make him the most well-regarded Mexican prospect in NBA history. Eduardo Najera, who logged over 600 regular-season games in the league with five clubs, is thus far the only Mexican-born draftee, going to the Houston Rockets with the 38th pick in 2000.
Born to hoop
Basketball has been a central theme throughout López’s life up to and including the day he was born. On April 12, 2007, basketball was the reason father and newborn son couldn’t be together, though it would later serve as a path toward success in life.
López, who plays for the New Zealand Breakers, is the youngest player in NBL history to post a double-double. Getty Images
“I wasn’t there when [Karim] was born,” said Jesús Hiram López, Karim’s father. “I was in my senior year of college, and I remember being nervous because my wife had been in labor for many hours.”
Hiram was nearly 1,500 miles away in Bolivar, Missouri, concluding both his studies and the basketball season for NCAA Division II program Southwest Baptist. Hiram recalls barely focusing on finals while awaiting confirmation that his wife, Claudia Mondaca, and his newborn son were doing well. Claudia’s parents eventually called with the news, but it would be over a month until Hiram could meet Karim in person.
Thus, Hiram made it a point to stay close to his family from then on. He went pro in Mexico, even with a few stints in Hermosillo, allowing Karim to join his dad on the hardwood often. The family fondly remembers Karim, barely a toddler, sneaking onto the practice court, slowly beginning his relationship with the game under the gym lights.
“I would go [with my dad] to games and I would try to help him out,” Karim said. “When both teams would go into the locker room I’d walk out to the court and shoot around a bit.”
Hiram encouraged Karim to join youth teams. Hermosillo is the state capital of Sonora, a region long influenced by American sports such as baseball and basketball, which allowed a consistent level of competition for López.
Like his father before him, Karim has been a part of the Mexican national team for years now, along with other players from Sonora such as Francisco Cruz, who plays in Turkey, and coach Omar Quintero. Despite his rapid development at such a young age, there was a time not too long ago when being on the cusp of the NBA seemed a pipe dream. López’s youth coach, Alejandro Leyva, recalls a pivotal moment in which the young man put his career in motion.
“As a child, Karim was not one of the top players [on our team], that’s important to say,” said Leyva, who has coached youth basketball in Mexico for 17 years and grew up with Hiram in Hermosillo. “Karim is part of a very talented crop of players here in Sonora. He would be the best player in practice, but something happened during actual games. He wasn’t the same.”
When López was 12, Leyva coached him at a youth tournament in Las Vegas and saw things begin to come together for the young player. A year later, footage of López dunking caught fire among basketball fans and media in Mexico. Soon after, pro scouts began to make their presence known in Hermosillo.
In 2022, when López was 14, Spanish club Joventut Badalona offered him a contract and a pathway from its youth squads to its top flight. The club is notable for developing NBA players Rudy Fernandez and Ricky Rubio, the veteran point guard who spent over a decade in the league with five franchises.
After two seasons — and two titles — with Joventut’s youth team, López debuted as a professional during the 2023-24 season. At year’s end, he received an offer from the Breakers in the NBL.
Top-10 talent
Last December, Mondaca flew from Mexico to New Zealand to spend Christmas break with Hiram and Karim in Auckland. It was the first time she had seen them in a few months, dating to the start of the NBL season. The López Mondaca family spent less than two weeks together before Claudia and Karim’s younger sister flew back home.
“I think that’s the difficult part of his career, constantly being in motion. But I hope he enjoys it all and gets accustomed to it, because it’s become a ritual [for the family],” Mondaca said. “At one point, I supported my husband with his pro career, and it’s the same with my son.”
López has taken to the NBL with ease. As part of the league’s Next Stars program, designed to attract young prospects and prepare them for the NBA as an alternative to college basketball, López is now mentioned in the same breath as some notable company. LaMelo Ball, of the Charlotte Hornets, Alex Sarr of the Washington Wizards and Josh Giddey of the Chicago Bulls are all former Next Stars, and all three went in the top 6 of their respective drafts.
Following his debut season with the Breakers, López seems poised to join the trio in the NBA. Last season, he became the youngest player in NBL history to post a double-double, with 13 points and 10 rebounds against the Sydney Kings. In January, he cracked 20 points for the first time against South East Melbourne Phoenix.
“What he’s doing is impressive, just because there are so few players who have been able to tread that path out of Mexico,” Woo said. “I think going somewhere in the top 10 [of the 2026 draft] is in play.”
A quick glance at López compilations on YouTube can educate even the most casual fan as to why Woo and other draft experts are so high on him. López scored 9.6 points and grabbed 4.7 rebounds per game in his debut season, averaging just 22.9 minutes per game. Despite his height, López handles the ball like a point guard and moves with ease among defenders. His long arms and wingspan have allowed him to make the highlight reel often with monster blocks on defense and breathtaking dunks on offense.
López will be the first to tell you his shooting is a work in progress. In general terms, however, the teenager consistently matches up favorably with former NBA players.
“What could be”
All signs point to a first-round selection, a possibility López’s family and friends are cautiously optimistic about. He only allows a few moments to drift away and think about it before he catches himself and shakes it off.
“There’s always that moment when you’re about to sleep and you start thinking about what could be,” López said. “But I also try to not think about it too much because it could be a distraction.”
Should the moment come, López will become just the fifth player born in Mexico to play in the NBA, a league that has made major strides to woo fans of Mexican heritage despite the potential lack of on-court representation. Mexican American players such as former Golden State Warriors forward Juan Toscano-Anderson and current Miami Heat guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. have emerged as popular ambassadors for the more than 30 million NBA fans the league counts within the country’s borders.
Toscano-Anderson has become a draw in Mexico City thanks to two stints with the G League’s Capitanes, the first franchise in the NBA pyramid to be based outside of the U.S. or Canada. For nearly a decade, the NBA itself has made regular pilgrimages to Mexico City, playing regular-season games in packed arenas.
It’s safe to say that López’s addition would be more than a feather in the league’s cap should he debut in the 2026-27 NBA season, vaulting him to unforeseen levels of fame as one of the country’s only representatives.
For now, save for small crowds near the Hermosillo city center or during the NBL season in Auckland, López enjoys partial anonymity. He describes it as a sort of dual state in which he’s firmly planting his feet to the ground and focusing on the task at hand but also allowing himself to put his head in the clouds ever so often.
“I hope LeBron is still there if I get to the NBA,” López said. “Anything can happen, but I hope he’s there so I can play with or against my idol.”
He catches himself again.
“I mean, in the end, I’m not [in the NBA] yet, I have to keep working to get to that moment and make my dreams come true.”
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