His father was an icon of 100% Lucha and is the novelty of the Argentine basketball team at 17 years old





The Gimnasia La Plata power forward chatted with TyC Sports and told details of his life. The old desire to be a professional fighter, his references, the experience of training with the eldest and more.


Lee Aaliya with her father and brother

The Argentina basketball team had a novel presence in the preparation training to face Venezuela and Panama for the qualifying duels for the Indonesia-Philippines-Japan 2023 World Cup. Lee AaliyaGimnasia La Plata player who received the invitation from Néstor García and who has the peculiarity of being son of Musambe Tutu, ex-wrestler of 100% Lucha. The power forward of the Wolf chatted with TyC Sports and told details of his story.

Lee was born in La Plata and started playing basketball at a very young age: I started playing when I was three years old. My brother trained and I walked with the ball everywhere, ha”. However, he clarifies that his father’s profession also seduced him: I liked basketball and I also did wrestling. When he was a kid he wanted to be a fighter, like my dad.”.

His father, the Ghanaian Jeff Aliya -better known as Musambe Tutu-, shone in 100% Fight from the second season to the last. Although Lee was born in Argentina, he confesses: I would love to meet my grandfather, uncles and cousins ​​that I have in Ghana.”.

Lee Aaliya

Lee Aaliya’s arrival in Gymnastics and the difficulty she had to face in her first year

Lee started out playing for club South America, but in 2018 he decided to turn his young career around: “When I was in the U13 team, a colleague who played in gymnastics (Lucas Arata) told me to go, and when I wanted to grow as a player I went to do the tests. I ended up staying in the A, but still I was a year without being able to play because I had already played the tournament with my previous club.

It was at Lobo that he decided he would play in positions three (forward) and four (power forward). And it is that before playing in La Liga Argentina (second division of national basketball), and before reaching the height of 2.04 metersused to play in all positions.

Lee Aaliya

The invitation to the training sessions of the Argentine basketball team: how he found out and feelings of the experience

Although he is one of the promises of the U-18 team and last year he had been summoned to the U19 national preselection to train at the Cenard, Néstor García’s invitation took Lee Aaliya almost by surprise: I left training on a Saturday and had two missed calls from the assistant. I went out and sent him a message letting him know that he had just finished training. He called me and told me ‘congratulations’, that I had been summoned to train as a guest and that I had to appear on Monday at 9.30 in the morning at Obras.

Lee Aaliya

About his days rubbing shoulders with the members of the major, he recounts:a beautiful experience with all the elite companions that are here. How they help you, all very good people, teammates and players. The truth I will never be able to forget and I loved that they gave me the opportunity”.

In addition, during the tests with the national team he had to face once again the funny inconvenience that has haunted him throughout his life. I spell my first and last name all the time. When we do the tests I have to be repeating it all the time because it is difficult. My name is Chinese and my last name is Arabic.”counts between laughs.

Lee Aaliya’s references and her longing for the future

“I really liked how I played national basketball Walter Hermann (member of the Golden Generation), I spend time watching videos. I really like the NBA Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks power forward) for his firmness to play, he is a bull”comment.

Finally, he stated what his future goals are: “I would like to be able to take my basketball to the best level. I would love to be able to continue with this professionally, being able to reach the ACB (Spain) and one day being able to play in the NBA as well. However, he is clear that to achieve his goals he must “Keep sticking with it and train hard”.

Lee Aaliya

Photos: @cabboficial, @jeff_aaliya_musambe_tutu and Estandarte Tripero.

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His father was an icon of 100% Lucha and is the novelty of the Argentine basketball team at 17 years old