As a young boy growing up in the Republic of Georgia, Sandro Mamukelashvili idolized the one player from his home country who was excelling in the NBA.
Zaza Pachulia, the 6-foot-11 big man who played for the Georgian National Team when Mamukelashvili was a kid, would go on to become the first player born in Georgia to win an NBA title when he did so with the Golden State Warriors in 2017.
“Growing up, I just used to watch him all the time on the National Team,” Mamukelashvili, a 6-11 junior forward at Seton Hall, told NJ Advance Media. “He was kind of like my idol. I want to be where he is right now.”
Known simply as Sandro or “Mamu,” Mamukelashvili is averaging 12.3 points and 5.3 rebounds for No. 16 Seton Hall (6-2), which next faces Iowa State on Sunday (9 p.m., ESPN2). In his most recent game, Mamukelashvili scored a season-best 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting and six rebounds in an 84-76 win over the Cyclones last Friday in the Bahamas. In a scheduling quirk, Seton Hall will face Iowa State in back-to-back games.
If Mamukelashvili, 20, keeps progressing at the current rate, Pachulia believes he could wind up in the NBA down the road.
“I think he’s very capable,” Pachulia, now a consultant with the Warriors, told NJ Advance Media by phone. “He fits today’s NBA style where he’s strong, he’s fast and he has an all-around game.”
BASKETBALL MADE HIM A WORLD TRAVELER
Even though his parents are Georgian, Mamukelashvili was born in New York City on May 23, 1999. When he was a couple of months old, his parents returned to Georgia to raise him and his two older brothers.
“They never thought about staying here [in the U.S.],” Mamukelashvili said. “They were visiting my aunt. My mom just wanted to come and see her sister. Other than that, they lived back there [in Georgia], their life was there. It was comfortable.”
Georgia is bordered by Russia to its north, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan to its south and east and the Black Sea to its west.
Mamukelashvili was exposed to basketball as a youngster by his middle brother, David. He also heard the stories about his grandmother, Ira Gabashvili, a star in her native Georgia.
“I never saw her play because she passed away before I was born, but I heard good stories about her, that she was a captain for the Soviet Union National Team, so she was really good,” he said. “My middle brother was playing so I went to see him practice one time and I really liked it and my father was always telling me how my grandma played so it was just kind of interesting.”
In August 2008, when he was 9, the Soviet Union invaded Georgia in what became known as the Russo-Georgian War. Luckily for Sandro, he and his brother David were visiting their aunt, noted Georgian/American pianist Eteri Andjaparidze, in Chicago at the time. His aunt was then teaching at DePaul University, and now teaches at NYU Steinhardt and the Mannes School of Music. Mamukelashvili visits his aunt periodically in New York.
“A lot of things could’ve went wrong,” he told The Athletic in 2017 of the Soviet invasion of part of his home country. “I could not even be here.”
By the time he was 14, Italian club teams began to show interest in his basketball skills. He ultimately left Georgia and attended high school in Italy, where he played for Angelico Biella. He helped their U17, U18 and U19 teams to third-place finishes in the national finals.
“It was amazing, I was 14 at the time,” he said. “It was hard to move to Italy. I didn’t know Italian or nothing like that so it was kind of like a big adjustment for a kid like me to go and live without my parents. But I feel like the Italian club where I played, they just made everything possible for me. It was so comfortable being there. I never felt like I was left out.”
As a result of his travels, Mamukelashvili now speaks four languages: English, Georgian, Russian and Italian.
ONWARD TO A PREP POWERHOUSE IN THE U.S.
In 2016, Mamukelashvili returned to the U.S. to join prep powerhouse Montverde (FL) Academy, where he was attracted by the legacies of stars like D’Angelo Russell and Ben Simmons. Both went on to become among the six top-3 NBA Draft picks mentored by former St. Patrick High School coach Kevin Boyle, who has led Montverde to four high school national championships and currently has the No. 1-ranked team in the nation.
At Montverde, Mamukelashvili played alongside current Knicks rookie R.J. Barrett, who is expected to be in the mix for NBA Rookie of the Year honors.
“I saw how good Montverde was,” he said. “I saw Ben Simmons, D’Angelo, all the players. When I asked about coach Boyle, everybody was telling me how good he was. It was kind of like a no-brainer. When I had the chance to go there, I just went there.”
Throughout the whole process, Pachulia remained involved as a mentor and advisor.
While he was playing for the Orlando Magic, Pachulia invited Mamukelashvili and a teammate to an NBA game in Orlando, which is near Montverde.
“We went and watched the game and he introduced me to some of the Golden State players like Steph Curry,” Mamukelashvili said. “I feel like I will never forget that experience in my life. He’s kind of like my big brother.”
In April 2017, after being recruited by Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard and assistant Grant Billmeier, Mamukelashvili committed to the Pirates over USC, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt among others.
“We are very excited to welcome Sandro into the Seton Hall basketball family,” Willard said at the time. “He is only 17, and yet he is a very skilled passer and ball-handler, and he shoots very well for someone his size. It is clear he has been mentored by one of the more respected high school coaches in the country in Coach Boyle. We think he has a very high ceiling, and we are looking forward to coaching him and developing his potential.”
Pachulia later met with Willard in person.
“I met with him two years ago when he came to Georgia,” Pachulia said. “He’s a great human being.”
LEARNING FROM AN NBA VETERAN
Last summer when Pachulia and Mamukelashvili were back home in Tbilisi, they worked out about half a dozen times at Pachulia’s Academy.
“He taught me a lot of things, how to jump stop,” Mamukelashvili said. “He taught me how KD [Kevin Durant] does some of the things, which I’ve got to work on. Balance, most importantly. In the weight room, to work on my core to get bigger.”
Mamukelashvili said he respects Pachulia because even though he was never a star, he lasted 16 years in the NBA and played for half a dozen teams.
“He’s a great basketball player but he just knows the game so good,” Mamukelashvili said. “He’s always played his role so he always looked at other players what they do best. So I feel like having him on my side, he’s teaching me how to slow my game up and then go fast again and then not play the same pace.”
Pachulia, meantime, has challenged Mamukelashvili to expand other facets of his game, including defending multiple positions and shooting the deep ball. Mamukelasvili is second only to Seton Hall star Myles Powell in 3-pointers made. He’s 10-of 22 on the season (46 percent).
“One thing I challenge him for this year is to guard one through five, and I think he’s very capable of doing that,” Pachulia said. “He’s very capable of pushing the ball in transition whenever he gets the opportunity and he shouldn’t put himself in the center position. He should be able to do everything. I think he’s a great passer. He’s a good shooter but he needs to get more consistent with his shooting. He’s capable of making the 3-point shot. He’s young, he’s only getting better and improving.”
The two remain in constant touch and text or FaceTime after almost every game. After Mamukelashvili’s most recent performance against Iowa State in the Bahamas, they will have plenty to talk about. Even Willard came away impressed.
“I’m glad Sandro stepped up and took shots because he makes the game so much simpler when he steps in and shoots it,” Willard said on AM970.
As for a potential pro future down the road, Pachulia would love to see another his Georgian “little brother” in the league.
“As somebody like myself who knows the NBA and how the game is played, I think I can help him with recommendations,” he said. “But at the end of the day, it’s in his hands how hard he works.”
Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media.