San Juan, Puerto Rico) — Former Wisconsin basketball player Aleem Ford officially became an Olympic competitor on Sunday after helping Puerto Rico’s national basketball team secure a spot at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Puerto Rico, playing in the FIBA ​​Olympic Qualifying Tournament at home in San Juan, capped off a perfect qualifying campaign with four straight victories. Puerto Rico’s accomplishments included victories over Bahrain (99-56), Italy (80-69), Mexico (98-78) and Lithuania (79-68).

Ford, who has Puerto Rican roots through his mother, played in three of the four qualifying games, with his best performance coming against Bahrain when he scored 10 points in 12 minutes off the bench.

Puerto Rico will participate in the Olympic men’s basketball tournament for the first time since 2004.

The men’s Olympic basketball tournament begins on July 27 in Lille and ends on August 10 with the final and third-place match in Paris.

Last season, Ford, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound forward, played professional basketball in the NBA G League, finishing his season with the Wisconsin Herd.

With three years of experience in the NBA G League and three years of international experience, the 26-year-old began his professional basketball career with the Leones de Ponce in the Baloncesto Superior Nacional League in Puerto Rico.

During the 2021–22 season, Ford joined the Lakeland Magic (now known as the Osceola Magic), appearing in 43 games and averaging 11.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists. On December 17, 2021, he signed a 10-day contract with the Orlando Magic and appeared in five NBA games. Ford returned to the Lakeland Magic for the remainder of the 2021–22 season and the 2022–23 season before joining the Cleveland Charge for the 2023–24 season. With the Charge, he averaged 11.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 36 games.

In March, Ford was traded to the Wisconsin Herd, an NBA G League affiliate of the Milwaukee Bucks, where he finished the season playing in nine games (eight as a starter) and averaging 10.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.

During his four-year collegiate career at Wisconsin, Ford appeared in 126 games, including 82 starts, averaging 6.5 points (34.8% 3FG) and 3.3 rebounds in 22.5 minutes per game. He won a Big Ten regular season championship with the Badgers in 2020.

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