Yves Missi was 4 years old when his brother Steve left their home in Yaoundé, Cameroon for the United States.

Steve had basketball dreams. He played at Montverde Academy in Florida and then earned a scholarship to Harvard, where he led the last Crimson team to reach the NCAA Tournament in 2015.

Yves made a similar leap more than a decade later. As a 16-year-old, he enrolled in a prep school in Maryland. Among the items he brought with him was a Cameroon flag. It originally belonged to Steve.

“That was his flag that he always used when he was younger,” said Yves, who is 12 years younger than Steve. “I stole it from him. I went through his things. I found it. I thought, 'I'll keep it.' I don’t even know if he knows.”

Steve studied mathematics at Harvard and now works as a data analyst in Paris. Yves is a rookie center with the New Orleans Pelicans, the team that selected him with the 21st pick in last summer's draft out of Baylor.

The Pelicans' interest in Yves during the pre-draft process was no secret. The team was lucky that he was still on the board at the time of selection.

There were signs in his first two NBA games that Yves could be an NBA contributor sooner than expected. The 20-year-old scored 12 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked three shots in his NBA debut on Wednesday, leaving his phone lit up with messages from friends and family around the world.

“Right now it’s about 4 a.m. in Cameroon,” Missi said. “There are people in France. My friends in the States text me.”

“Redshirting?”

One day at lunch last year, Bill Peterson wanted to learn more about Baylor's freshman center. Peterson, a professional basketball player who spent seven seasons as an assistant in Waco, Texas, worked closely with many of the Bears' big men. Yves was one of his students.

Yves showed Peterson a series of clips, the first from when he was 15 years old. Yves played basketball against his cousin. The two shot at a basket in Cameroon with a wooden backboard and no net. In the next clip, Yves played for his prep school in Maryland. In the next clip, Yves wore a mask at a game he played during the pandemic.

In four years, Yves had grown from 1.90 meters to 1.90 meters. During that time, he had moved around the world, lived on both US coasts and chose to attend college in Central Texas.

“You can't say, 'He can't do this right now,'” Peterson said. “Well, he’s only played organized basketball for three years. He’s so smart, he can pick up on things.”

In January, Baylor lost to Texas by two points. At this point in the season, Yves had a 48.5% shooting percentage from the free throw line. In Baylor's next game against TCU, Yves shot 5 of 7 free throws. From that point on, he shot a 74.3% free throw rate for the rest of the season.

Maneuvering dribble handoffs with perimeter players was one of the concepts Peterson worked on with Missi. Centers have the option to either throw the ball to their teammate or keep it for themselves and attack the basket.

When Baylor simulated this during a drill, Peterson expected Missi to throw the ball to one of the team's guards. Instead, Missi unexpectedly broke through the defense and sank the ball.

“It was explosive and fast,” Peterson said. “It was like, 'Woah, where did that come from?' “

The Baylor coaching staff liked that they could show Yves something on film once or twice and he could implement it into his game.

“Whatever it is, you don’t have to explain it to him 18 times,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “You can do it once and he’ll pick up stuff. That’s rare these days.”

When Yves arrived on campus, Baylor's coaches thought Missi might need a redshirt year to develop. As winter began and turned into spring, Drew realized that Missi's time in Waco would be measured in months, not years.

“At the beginning of the season we were like, 'Redshirting?' Drew said. “At the end of the year we thought, 'He's not coming back.' “

“Can you see it?”

At one of the Pelicans' first training camp practices in Nashville, Tennessee, Yves had an eyebrow-raising tip dunk. New Orleans general manager Bryson Graham texted Drew about the highlight.

At the NBA draft combine in May, Yves recorded a vertical length of 38½ inches. It's his combination of athleticism and study ability that enticed the Pelicans to recruit him.

In three preseason games, Yves blocked six shots in 50 minutes. He also fouled 11 times.

So far in the regular season, Yves has been able to protect the rim while reducing his fouling. He blocked five shots in his first two games.

On Friday, Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons appeared to beat Yves off the dribble, but Yves was able to recover in time and block the shot to the second line.

YVES MISSI WHO ARE YOU pic.twitter.com/wBBdIpe5vD

— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) October 26, 2024

“There’s no ceiling for him right now,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said. “Block every shot you can. He does a great job of fighting off his cock. When it touches the ground, you feel it immediately.”

Before Wednesday's home opener, Yves noted that substitute Jose Alvarado received one of the loudest ovations of any team member. Alvarado told Yves that the New Orleans crowd appreciated the effort.

When Yves left the game for the final time on Wednesday, the crowd at the Smoothie King Center gave him an ovation.

“See?” Alvarado told Yves. “Now they will love you.”

Yves still has the Cameroon flag that he brought to the United States as a teenager. It hangs in his apartment in New Orleans.

Steve told The Times-Picayune in a text message that he didn't know Yves had stolen it from him.

“I have to admit I have been looking for this flag for years,” Steve wrote. “I didn’t know he had it 😅. It was fun to watch the game.”