Chesterton sophomore Bradly Basila has a chance to show host Lake Central tonight how far he has come in basketball, one of the many areas where he has grown since moving from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The curiosity surrounding a basketball prospect as young and intriguing as Chesterton sophomore Bradly Basila tends to focus on the future more than the present.
He turned 16 in July and is 6-foot-7, which begs the question: Is he still growing?
“I don’t know,” Chesterton basketball coach Marc Urban said. “I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. I don’t think a lot of guys are done growing who are 16.”
Basila moved from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo on Jan. 18, 2025, and made his Chesterton basketball debut on Jan. 31. He is convinced he is still growing.
How can he tell?
“My hands are getting longer,” said Basila, who has a 6-10 wingspan. “And my arms.”
According to search engine Grock, the latest AI source of all knowledge until it creates something smarter and is cannibalized, “noticeable growth in a teenager’s hands (along with feet) is often an early sign that a growth spurt is beginning or underway … the body doesn’t grow uniformly all at once. Growth typically follows a distal-to-proximal pattern (from the extremities inward toward the core).”
Hands and feet, then arms and legs, then the torso (spine and trunk).
Next to Bradly’s mother, Charlyse, with whom he speaks every night via “What’s App?”, Rachel Miller, mother of his host family, perhaps knows him better than anyone.
“Did he tell you that he has an uncle who is I think 6-10 or 6-11?” Rachel asked.
No, but that’s interesting. Very interesting.
There is no mystery as to whether Basila is done growing as a basketball player or as a student of English and every other subject on his Chesterton schedule. He is just beginning and is eager to absorb knowledge in both arenas.
Basila is part of a family that knows all about busy sports schedules.
Luke is a former Chesterton basketball standout. Rachel is an ex-Valparaiso High swimmer so talented that she swam for Alabama University as a freshman before a shoulder injury ended her career and led to a transfer to Indiana University. Their sons Logan, now a freshman basketball player at Chesterton, Hudson, a sixth-grader, and Myles (“Little Bro” is what Bradly calls him), a third-grader, relied heavily on Google translate to communicate with the newest member of the family, who knew very little English and spoke French upon arrival.
He knew so little about winter here that when one January, 2025 day was unseasonably warm, hope dripping from every syllable, he asked Urban: “Change of seasons?”
Afraid not. Now, even in the midst of such a stormy winter, he has adjusted.
“I”m used to it now,” he said. “I can go outside now.”
His coaches and teammates also used Google translate to communicate with him in the early months, and even sign language after Urban brought hearing-impaired custodian/basketball guy John Little to practices to teach it to the players.
Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of Basila’s debut in a home game vs. Lake Central, which Chesterton lost, 60-50. He came off the bench in the second quarter and finished with seven points. The Trojans seek to avenge that loss in a game scheduled for tonight in St. John.
It was evident from early in Bradly’s debut that he was longer, taller, quicker, bouncier and faster than a typical high school basketball player, just as it was easy to tell that the newness of it all made him hit the fast-forward button when the right call was to hit play.
“I was scared,” Basila said, looking back. “I had no confidence. I was trying to do my best, but I had to learn first. Now I know what I have to do and I know why I have to do it. I learned more. But I still have to learn much more.”
Back then, it was more than just nerves that led Basila to throw his bank shots too hard off the fiberglass. Back home, he had only played in one game, “it was a final,” on a backboard that wasn’t made of wood.
At first, he lacked the wise shot selection he now demonstrates, and more often than not, he shot, sometimes in hot-potato fashion.
“He was really quick last year like he would get it and he would just go so quick and it was like, ‘Just slow down,’” Urban said. “I don’t think he realized sometimes he’s 6-7. He’s tall, he’s long, so just get it to a spot where no one can touch it and score. You’re making the dance way too hard. Just keep it simple. He’s doing a great job with that now.”
Basila’s making more than half of his field goal attempts and more than a third of his 3-pointers, and averages close to 13 points and six rebounds. He didn’t make any of his dunk attempts last season. He has several rim-punishing, multi-dunk games this season.
Enough on the present. Again, it’s difficult not to stray to the future when talking about someone with so much untapped potential.
“The thing is I don’t think he’s even close to being as good as he can be,” Urban said. “So there is a lot of work that still has to be done with him, but he works extremely hard. He’s always wanting to work, he’s wanting to lift extra. His work ethic is really impressive. That jump is hopefully going to take place because he has that work ethic.”
Close your eyes and imagine another 40 pounds on Basila’s frame. You would not be the first to do so, and it’s sometimes easy to forget he has two years before playing his final game for Chesterton, six years before graduating college.
“He’s 190 but I was like, man what would you look like at 230?” Urban said. “He’s got the right frame and right shoulders and he looks the part for sure.”
Urban and Luke and Rachel Miller both talk about how intelligent he is, which enables him to pick up on things rapidly in his second language. They both said he’s doing well in school, and is mindful of the importance of good grades in landing a basketball scholarship. The Millers have hired a weekly tutor to help him with math.
Ironically, Basila’s smoothest transition came in an area where he had the least experience: living in a large family with a father and siblings. At home, it was just him and his mother.
“He’s always been so poised. He seamlessly fit into our family,” Rachel said. “The boys love him obviously and he just fit in from Day 1. It’s always been easy. We have a golden retriever, so he was a little nervous with the dog at first, but now they’re buddies. I can’t recall a time thinking that he was shy or withdrawn or anything.”
Bradly attends Logan’s freshman games when they don’t conflict with his basketball schedule. Other than that, he said he can be found at home or at school or at a restaurant with the family.
“I don’t like to go out,” he said. “I like to sleep. Work out, sleep, work out.”
He has gained nearly 30 pounds since making the move and opened the season at 191 pounds.
He said he likes that he can eat whatever he wants, whenever he wants and added that it wasn’t always that way before moving. He said he appreciates that now the cupboards are never bare.
“Maybe my country’s food,” he said of what he misses from home, other than his mother. “I miss many things my grandma used to make. I miss my grandma’s cooking.”
Such as?
“Fumbwa,” he said of stew that, according to the all-knowing Grock, features wild spinach, ground peanuts, red palm oil and sometimes smoked catchfish, as well as onions, garlic, tomatoes, hot peppers and other spices. “And soups. We have many soups.”
What else?
“We ate caterpillars,” Basila said of the Congolese delicacy. “They smoke caterpillars, and it’s very good. I feel like if you try it, you would like it. When they cook it, it’s different. It’s like chicken.”
Interesting to see that the old “try it; it tastes like chicken,” bait knows no borders.
He eats well, according to Rachel Miller, considers Culver’s his favorite fast-food destination for cheeseburgers, and chose Wagner’s as the site of his birthday meal because he loves the ribs they serve.
“He’s trying,” to put on weight, Rachel said.
“Mum,” as Bradly calls Rachel, appreciates how easily he took on big-brother responsibilities.
“Respect is really big for him,” Mum said. “If I say something like come upstairs and they’re all downstairs and they’re on the Playstation or whatever and one of them says, ‘Just give us five more minutes,’ he has been known to carry them upstairs, saying, ‘Mum said we’ve got to go upstairs.’ He’s become my right-hand man, which is great. They listen to him.”
Rachel revealed another Bradly talent that she called “amazing.”
“He’s super talented with art, so artistic,” Rachel said. “He drew a picture of Luke and it looks exactly like him. His drawing and painting, it’s unreal, so realistic. It’s crazy.”
Bureaucratic delays involved with moving from a foreign country dragged on for so long that Rachel said until she saw a picture of him arriving in Chicago, she didn’t believe it was going to happen. Bradly updated the Millers throughout his journey with selfie videos, starting in Kinshasa, then boarding his connecting flight in Belgium, then at O’Hare, where Luke and Logan picked him up because the rest of the family was in Hobart attending Hudson’s basketball game.
“I cannot recall a time that he hasn’t been very comfortable with us and vice versa,” Mum said of the teenager who had the courage to come alone to a new world to pursue his basketball dreams. “I feel like it’s been a seamless thing. He was meant to come, he was meant to be with us, and he’s part of our family.”
Rachel several times used the phrase “meant to happen,” when talking of the family welcoming a fourth son.
Ten days after Basila’s flight touched down at O’Hare and three days before he made his debut vs. Lake Central, violent protesters in Kinshasa attacked the U.S. embassy, one of the many signs that convinced the Millers that Bradly was meant to be with them.
“The way the timing worked out, if anything had gotten delayed anymore, there is no way he would have gotten here,” Rachel said. “I just think things worked out the way they were supposed to work out. He’s here and he’s part of us.”
Rachel said that Charlyse is “so nice, very gracious and grateful.” Understandably, the Millers receive many plaudits for taking the lead role in helping Basila to pursue his basketball dreams and further his education.
“People will tell us, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s so lucky to come here and be with your family,’” Rachel said. “I feel like we are truly the lucky ones to have him with us. He’s an amazing kid. It’s been awesome in every aspect.”