SNS x Fryshuset

Introducing Mustafa Dibba

Together with local Fryshuset, a place where basketball is celebrated and sports connect people, we want to introduce you to the people that drive the location. Women and men that have made a name for themselves all over the world and originally come from Fryshuset and always come back there.

To grow, develop and become your very best.

Mustafa Dibba is a basketball pro who will play in Sweden's highest basketball league next season. With a team full of different players from all over greater Stockholm the passion for basketball is the driving force that holds them together. Now they fight for each other and for Fryshuset Basket, the community where they got the space and the opportunity to focus wholeheartedly on being the best.

This is the first part of a series of articles Fryshuset does together with Sneakersnstuff, where we get to know some players in Fryshuset Basket's community and tell stories based on their passion and in their own words. All photos are taken by Adrian Pehrson.

Mustafa grew up in a basketball family in Bredäng and started playing at the age of nine.

“Basketball is my upbringing, my family, my passion, my identity, my career. When my friends started spending their time in less rewarding contexts, I put my time into basketball. Who knows what would have happened if I had not done so.”

This spring he was drafted to the Spanish league and this autumn he and the basketball team of Fryshuset will play in the Swedish Basketball League.

"Being able to go up in the top league means a lot to me. It's something special since I was small, after all I went from Bredäng to watch the league matches in Fryshuset. All players were role models, it was such an experience. Now I will be here and play in the top league. Hopefully I can also become a role model for the next generation of young players.”

Today, it is a different team that will represent Stockholm. One of the league's youngest teams, and with talents from all over Greater Stockholm, the team and the club are something like an underdog.

“We are all strong individuals from completely different places around Stockholm, but we are fighting for each other. Always playing for each other. It does not matter who you are, the team goes first, the team before oneself. "

The passion for basketball is their driving force, but it is far from everything. Most of the players have encountered prejudices, and have not always felt at home in other contexts.

“The biggest challenge has been to meet prejudices about players that play for Fryshuset, that I always had to disprove. Like Fryshuset guys have an attitude, that we do not listen, can not be coached. From both, other teams and coaches I get comments like “then you have to listen, not have an attitude .” I've never had a problem with that. I'm not like that. Having to constantly struggle with one's identity and prejudices takes energy, and makes it difficult to focus entirely on basketball. Here, everyone feels that they can be themselves. Without worrying about that someone judges you, with the feeling that people around you see you and understand how you are, as a human being. There are important factors that affect the game; how I perform on the court and how we can perform as a team. So perhaps it is precisely our differences that bind us together, that makes it easier to understand each other. This makes us to Fryshuset, a strong team full of strong players. "