How NBA Kenya Senior Director came to Madina Okot's rescue in successful visa-application

Kenyan basketball star Madina Okot will forever be grateful to NBA Kenya Country Lead Michael Finley, for the role he played in ensuring her move to Mississippi State University on a scholarship was successful.

Okot, one of the finest prospects in basketball, was last week handed a massive reprieve as she finally secured a US visa after three failed attempts at the Embassy.

Kenyan basketball sensation Madina Okot set for US University after two-year wait for visa

But as it turns out, a fourth-time visit was successful, in large part due to the vast ‘behind-the-scenes’ work by Finley, who prepared Okot for the visa application interview.

Narrating the shift in her recent interviewing process on Sport On, Okot said: “In the previous times, I was just being prepared by coaches living outside Kenya and they only explained the process to me on the phone.

“This time, however, I met Finley physically, and he took me through it just a day before I went in for the interview.”

Explaining how the two met up, Finley, who only relocated to the Kenya NBA Offices a few months ago from South Africa said: “I had been hearing about Madina for about four to five years.”

“First I heard that there was this really good player down the coast, who had been getting high school offers but never left and somehow missed them.

“I then heard about her Troy University opportunity in 2023 and thought she had left.

“But then when Kenya was preparing for the Paris Olympics Qualifiers (3x3), her name came up again, and I was surprised that she still hadn’t left.”

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As per Finley, once he had settled down in Kenya, he recently got a phone call about “this young player who has had her visa rejected multiple times” and took up the matter.

“I then reached out to the Embassy and realized that they didn’t really understand the story behind Okot,” he said. “I made it clear to them, detailing who she was, where she was from, and why she was doing it.”

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And just a day before Okot went through the familiar process for her fourth time, Finley took the role of ‘interviewer’ in a mock visa application.

“We met up with Okot the day before her interview and I spent it interviewing her like this rude American,” Finley narrated.

“I later on asked her [Okot] who she thought I was when we met and she said that she saw me as a guy who was going to slap her.

“But all I was doing was to prepare her for the interview.”

In response, Okot, who arrived in the US on Monday morning said: “When we met with Finley, he was so harsh, asking me questions but giving me little time to even think or respond.

It took me until after the interview to realize what he had just done, and I am so thankful for his assistance through the entire process.”