De Sousa’s guardian comments on KU player leaving team to address ‘personal issues’
Silvio De Sousa’s mentor and guardian, Fenny Falmagne, stressed on Friday that De Sousa, the former University of Kansas basketball player, “is going to be OK,” after some time away from the sport.
“He just wants to take care of some personal issues, some things he’s going through and dealing with,” Falmagne said Friday.
Falmagne was speaking in a phone conversation with The Star an hour after De Sousa posted on Twitter that he was “taking time for myself and stepping away from basketball,” in order to “focus all of my energies on some personal issues.”
“This is just a kid focusing on taking care of himself. He needs to take care of things in his life (that are) now taking priority,” Falmagne added.
Like De Sousa and KU coach Bill Self, who issued a statements on Friday, Falmagne did not address any specific issues that might be affecting De Sousa, a 6-foot-9, 245-pound senior power forward from Angola.
“This has nothing to do with the NCAA, nothing.” Falmagne told The Star. Remember, the 22-year-old De Sousa has been part of the NCAA’s inquiry into KU basketball. The NCAA initially ruled on Feb. 1, 2019 that De Sousa would have to sit out the remainder of the 2018-19 basketball season and all of 2019-20 “because his guardian received payment from a university booster and agent and agreed to receive additional funds from the same person.”
KU appealed that NCAA decision. On May 24, 2019, the NCAA announced that De Sousa had won his appeal and would be eligible to play in the 2019–20 season.
Falmagne did not comment when asked if De Sousa had any health problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“He wants to get his mind right. I mean your career is really important. Your health is better (more important),” Falmagne said. “This is about him. That’s kind of the focus right now. I’m not coming from the basketball side. I’m coming from caring about him as a person. I care about his health, mental health and everything. To me that’s No. 1. If he needs to take time off to focus a little on him to be all-around better, I understand because he’ll be a father one day. He’ll be married, have a family. It’s really important for him to be better. I want that for him,” Falmagne added.
In explaining his decision to leave KU at the start of his fourth season, De Sousa wrote on Twitter: ““I have made the difficult decision to opt out of this season to focus all of my energies on some personal issues. I have a lot of things weighing on my mind and need to address these by taking time for myself and stepping away from basketball. I do not know what my next plan will be right now, but I will decide that when the time is right.
“This was not an easy decision to leave the basketball program, but it’s the best thing for me to do right now. Thank you to all my coaches and teammates for always having my back. You will always be my brothers for life. Jayhawk nation, thank you for welcoming me and supporting me through the ups and downs. It has been very tough for me at times, but you have all meant so much to me.”
Falmagne had no comment when asked if De Sousa might transfer to another program or turn pro. He said this current decision to opt out of the season had nothing to do with any possible dissatisfaction with the program or the coaching staff.
“Listen, we love Ccoach (Bill Self) and it has nothing to do with Coach,” Falmagne said. “Coach is awesome. It’s like my son is playing basketball now. He’s 8-years-old. My dream is for him to play for Coach. That’s how I feel about Coach Self.
“I would love for my son to play for Coach, not just to play for him because he’s a great coach but you have to understand Coach really cares about him as a person. People have to understand the reason we went with Kansas is Coach really cares about the kids. I talk to Coach. He’ll keep me posted about everything going on. A lot of coaches don’t do that. I know how some coaches are, they’ll say ‘Later, goodbye.’ He’s always cared about his players. To me that’s important. It is a school I will recommend to anybody to play at,” Falmagne added.
Self did not remove De Sousa from the program last season after De Sousa was handed a 12-game suspension by the Big 12 Conference for his role in a fight at the end of the KU-Kansas State game at Allen Fieldhouse. For the season, he played in 18 games, averaging 2.6 points and 2.8 rebounds per game. De Sousa averaged 8.2 minutes per game.
Falmagne said it had not been decided if De Sousa would remain in Lawrence or head elsewhere at this time. He could sign a pro contract overseas if he wished, but he cannot enter the 2020 NBA Draft. He would have had to declare for the draft by the deadline for college players last spring.
“It’s still his personal choice at the end of the day,” Falmagne said. “It (future plan) is something he has to decide. Right now he is a kid focusing on taking care of himself,” Falmagne repeated.
He does believe De Sousa has a future playing basketball at a high level.
“Silvio is extremely gifted and talented,” Falmagne said. “The future is bright for him.”
Coach Self’s statement on Friday read: “Today, Silvio informed me he was going to opt out of the 2020-21 season and focus on matters in his personal life. Knowing Silvio, it was clear he had been distracted and not fully focused during workouts as of late. After he and I sat down and talked about that, it was clear this was the best decision for him, and Kansas basketball, to leave the program. At some point in the future, Silvio will decide what his next steps will be and where that will take him. Silvio has worked very hard during his time here and we have stood by him throughout, but we fully understand his reasoning to take time away from basketball. We support his decision and wish him nothing but success moving forward.”
De Sousa’s announcement leaves KU with three big men: junior David McCormack, senior Mitch Lightfoot and freshman Gethro Muscadin.
This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 10:23 PM.
