Mahershala Ali is a man of many talents.
The star picked up his second Academy Award in three years on Sunday, cementing his status as one of Hollywood’s leading actors.
But it’s his talents in another field entirely that have surprised the internet.
Ali, 45, was a Division I basketball player back in the day, playing on a college scholarship for Saint Mary’s College in California.
The NCAA reminded the world of his skills on the court Sunday with a vintage clip of some of the star’s highlights from his time as a Gael, which lasted from 1992 until his graduation in 1996.
TheGreen Bookactor was known as Hershal Gilmore at the time (he changed his last name in 2000), and he averaged 3.6 points per game and 1.1 rebounds.
Ali’s time on the court started at Mt. Eden High School in Hayward, California, where he helped take the school’s basketball team to the state championships, and even once played on a traveling team with future NBA Hall of Famer Jason Kidd, he toldRolling Stonein November.
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The star has said that throughout high school, he was focused on getting his scholarship, and didn’t think too much about pursuing a career as a professional basketball player.
“Once I got that, I didn’t set a realistic next goal on how to get to the NBA, which is perhaps for the best,” he toldGQin 2016. “I fell into acting. A teacher gave me an opportunity to be in a play and it came a little easy to me.”
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Ali has also said that he was not entirely happy with the college basketball program, as he felt the young players were “disposable, like a product.”
“That felt callous to me. Especially as black boys, I think we felt betrayed,” he toldRolling Stone.
In anessayhe wrote for Saint Mary’s College while promoting 2012’sThe Place Beyond the Pines, Ali said that upon graduating, he “no longer thought of (himself) as an athlete.”
Upon graduating with a degree in mass communication, Ali headed east to study acting at New York University’s graduate program — and the rest is history.
The star won his second Oscar for his supporting role as Don Shirley inGreen Booktwo years after winning the same prize for his role inMoonlight.
source: people.com
