Pro career has helped Nana Foulland better appreciate the world around him

11-year-old Nana Foulland would’ve laughed if you suggested he had a future in professional basketball.

He was gangly, uncoordinated and didn’t even like the game.

Fifteen-year-old Nana would’ve scoffed at the suggestion of a life in the pros, too. He was a bench player at Berks Catholic and even at 6-8 wasn’t considered a big-time college prospect, much less viewed as a future pro.

“It didn’t really dawn on me till way later,” Foulland says of a potential life in basketball, “till I was on a flight to Israel.”

That was the first stop of his current world tour, and pro career. It came on the heels of an outstanding career at Bucknell where he was Patriot League Player of the Year, a three-time all-league pick and scored over 1,700 points, fourth all-time in the program.

Even with the Bison, Foulland saw no long-term future in the game. Maybe it’s because he was a late bloomer in the sport, with few self expectations; he had no burning desire to be the next Tim Duncan or Kevin Garnett. Probably didn’t even know who those guys were.

Foulland is as laid-back as they come. Sure, he’d love a chance to move up in the pro ranks, play in the EuroLeague, or even the NBA, but he’s not hellbent on it.

“I just work to get better every day,” said the 26-year-old, “and whatever happens, happens with it.”

That’s the approach he’s always taken, and it’s gotten him this far. Why change now?

He was a reluctant basketball participant at Saint Catherine when he arrived as a sixth-grader. He was already 6-foot tall, some half-a-foot taller than the other kids; they insisted he join the team.

“I tried; I was terrible,” he recalls. “I didn’t really like it. As the years went on I kind of grew and got more coordinated. The more I played, the better I got. I got good because I put in the time.”

You’ve gotta perform or else you’re be sent back to America. (The fans) are not very patient; you lose two, three games in a row (and you hear it).

— Nana Foulland

He had trouble getting on the court at Berks Catholic because the guy in front of him was miles better. That was Donovan Jack, who was 6-9 and a two-time All-State pick who went on to play at Penn State.

Foulland went against Jack daily in practice, kept his head down, and learned. He grew by leaps and bounds between his sophomore and junior seasons; when he got a chance to start, after Jack graduated, he took off like a rocket.

He became a dominant force in the post, practically overnight. He had 17 points and 14 rebounds in a Berks Conference championship win over Reading High and anchored the post as the Saints won a District 3 Class AAA title and 26 games his junior season, 2012-13.

He was a two-time Berks Player of the Year, a two-time All-State pick, played on three district championship teams and was the first to score 1,000 points for Berks Catholic.

He points to his sophomore season, when he went against the likes of Jack, Marquis Marshall, Chris Warren and Mike Miller every day in practice, as the reason he’s now getting paid to play.

“I learned a lot from them,” said Foulland, who grew to 6-10. “Going against them every day made me better. You can’t replicate that. I’m very grateful for being on that team. I could’ve started for most of the teams in the county as a sophomore but I wouldn’t have gotten as good as I got if I weren’t on Berks Catholic, that’s for sure.”

Foulland played in Israel in 2018 after graduating from Bucknell. He split the 2019 season between Romania and Poland. Last season he played in Italy. This season, which tipped last month, he’s playing for Boulazac Basket Dordogne, in the Ligue Nationale de Basket, the top pro circuit in France.

BBD plays a couple games a week and practices the other four or five. As serene as the countryside may seem in the Bordeaux region of southeastern France, the basketball can get intense, Foulland said. Travel is difficult — 10-hour bus rides sometimes — and the fans are demanding. He referred to pro ball as “cutthroat.”

“You’ve gotta perform or else you’re gonna be sent back to America,” he said. “You’ve gotta win; often the blame falls on the Americans, because we’re usually paid the most. They’re not very patient; you lose two, three games in a row (and you hear it).

“Over the course of the season two or three games is nothing. But out here, it’s like: ‘Oh, we need to change the coach, or change the players.’ So when you’re losing games or you’re not playing as well as you should be they will fire you and tell you go to home. It’s a very cutthroat world out here. It’s very different from what I thought it was going to be.”

Foulland said language isn’t a barrier. He has picked up only a few words of French but most of his teammates are fluent in English. The most difficult aspect, he said, is playing with a new team in a new country every year.

“It’s always an adjustment, especially for me,” he said. “This will be my fifth country in four years. Every time I’ve got to adjust to a new culture, a new place, a new style of play, new league.

“Its been tough, but it’s also been a good experience. It’s made me into a better person, a better player for sure.”

There are plusses to playing in Europe, Foulland said. He just didn’t see them at first.

When he flew halfway across the world for his first basketball job he was focused on improving his game so that he could return to the United States and have a shot at the NBA.

His wife Maddie (Reagan), whom he met at Berks Catholic, helped Nana see the world around him, literally.

“She got me to step outside and see this (lifestyle) as an opportunity most people don’t get,” Foulland said. “You’ve got the basketball and that’s business, but you can also take some time and enjoy Italy, enjoy Israel, Poland, France, Romania. At first (appreciating the culture) was something I put on the back burner. Now I’m totally immersed in it, and I give every place I go a fair shot and I want to learn and be a part of the culture.

“It’s incredible. It’s become the main focal point. It’s really made me holistic and changed me as a person, made me grow. You grow up in Reading, Pennsylvania, you don’t see a lot; you don’t know what real wine tastes like, you haven’t tried some of the best foods in the world.

“In Israel, you get falafel; pasta in Italy is just different. You try different things, you see different sites, how old other countries are. The history is so vast. It just makes you appreciate things and put things in perspective. (You realize) there’s a whole world out here, outside of Pennsylvania.”