Former Davenport West standout carves out basketball career in Bulgaria

At the time, Sampson doubted if he wanted to continue playing the sport he just started to love.

As most kids do, Sampson hit a growth spurt in middle school and eventually sprouted to 6-feet, 9-inches. His passion for basketball began to grow as well.

Despite his love for the game, Sampson played a multitude of sports as a kid, many coached by his father. Sampson always wanted to be a professional athlete. When he said so in middle school, he remembers getting scoffed at by a teacher, telling him to be realistic.

“I laughed back and said, 'I am (being realistic),'" Sampson said. “I felt like I had something to prove. That didn’t do anything but fuel my fire.”

With major doubts and on the verge of quitting basketball early in his freshman year of high school, Sampson’s father, Charles Sampson, encouraged him to continue, as he had done time and time again.

“His (high school) freshman year, he wasn’t doing so good at ball,” Charles Sampson said. “He got that feeling like, I don’t want to do it no more and was discouraged with himself. I told him you know; you said you want to do this, so we don’t quit. Keep trying. Practice makes perfect and look at you now.”

Sampson used this motivation to continue playing through high school with hopes of playing at a Division I school. However, Sampson did not believe Davenport West was being scouted enough to propel a basketball scholarship.

“I was under-recruited," Sampson said. "You see five-star, four-star recruits got offers to go to this D-I school, that D-I school, but I really didn’t have much from high school,” Sampson said. “I had like, an NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics), maybe one D-II and then a lot of juco (junior college), so I knew if I wanted to keep my career going, the most realistic option was to go juco.”

Sampson played basketball for two years at North Iowa Area Community College, a junior college in Mason City, Iowa, about three hours from his home. This is where he started to build a portfolio.

“I had a really good two years there,” Sampson said. “That helped me get some looks.”

Sampson transferred to Division II Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla., before using the transfer portal to get into the University of Arkansas Pine-Bluff, a D-I program. Sampson played here for his final year of college. Sampson remembers his first game very fondly.

“My first D-I game, I’m playing in front of 17,000 people, opening night at Creighton,” Sampson recalled. “It’s rocking, I have no idea how I’m going to do.

"I’m there, they put me in starting lineup, I’m like, 'Holy (crap), I’ve never played in front of (this many people). I put up 20 points and eight rebounds in the first half and finished with like 29 (points) and 10 (rebounds) playing against a power six school.”

Sampson graduated from college in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in General Studies. This meant a lot for Sampson as he is a first-generation college graduate.

“In my family, you don’t see it a lot,” Sampson said. “It shows people in my family and other people around me that maybe, if I do put my head down and work, I can get to where I want to go. Like my little niece, I go watch her play, she wears 23 (like Sampson) and she says, ‘I want to be like you.’”

Sampson signed with an agent after college to help find some way to continue his dream.

This is how he found the opportunity to play in the National Basketball League Bulgaria. Sampson is no longer with the agent he initially signed with and will be looking for new representation in the future.

Sampson’s career has bounced around a lot, from Iowa to Arkansas and most recently Bulgaria. 

In college, Sampson was a car ride from home. In Bulgaria, it is impossible to go see family while the season is in full swing. With an eight-hour time difference and a phone provider that doesn’t work in Bulgaria, Sampson must find optimal times to contact family.

“(Living in Bulgaria) has been tough already,” Sampson said. “I have never been out of (America) and being this far away from my family for this long has been tough already, and I know I got about six more months left (in the season)."

Bulgaria presents numerous other challenges, large and small, for Sampson to face, like not having enough Soul and Mexican food, his favorites.

But one challenge Sampson faces on the court is to get stronger, as he plays at 210 pounds, yet feels Bulgarian basketball is more physical and demanding than in college, where the game was played at a faster pace.

“The thing I want to work on the most is probably my strength,” Sampson said. “My goal was to hit like 225-230 within the next couple of years.”

During high school, coaches did not want Sampson shooting 3-point shots. Sampson went to the gym every day after school to shoot hundreds of 3s throughout the week to get better. He wants to implement the same type of system to get stronger in the next couple of years.

“It’s gradual. The progress is not going to show up right away, but as long as you stick to it, and keep pushing through it, you’ll grow,” Sampson said. “You cannot cheat it. It’s a popular saying, you can’t cheat the grind.”

Long-time friend, Malik Westerfield, met Sampson in a basketball tryout during middle school, and the two have been close friends ever since.

Westerfield can attest to Sampson’s personality, saying that he’s a “real great guy” whose “always smiling or laughing, making jokes.”

Westerfield believes Sampson can continue to work all the way to the NBA if he keeps “grinding.”

“If he keeps working and makes sure he’s healthy, I think he is going to have many opportunities,” Westerfield said. “I see him doing big things.”

Sampson has enjoyed his time in Bulgaria. The NBL Bulgaria is the Bulgarian equivalent of the NBA, according to Sampson. This makes him a recognizable face already.

“I got kids running up to me on the sidewalk and stuff, asking for pictures and asking for autographs, saying like, ‘great game,’” Sampson said. “It’s almost like a surreal feeling, like I don’t understand a lot of the language and what not, but people get excited when they see you. I love the fans out here.”

Sampson hopes his profile in Bulgaria grows enough to get into the Euro Basketball League. But Sampson is not picky. He wouldn’t mind playing in the National Basketball League Australia or the G League (the Gatorade league, a developmental NBA league).

Sampson said he especially loves the work it takes daily to stay in shape and continuously get better. This attitude will help push him forward in his newly established professional basketball career.

“Wherever this basketball takes me is where I’m hoping to go, there’s a lot of good leagues out there,” Sampson said. “My goal would be, right now, to work on getting to the Euro League and playing for a team like France or Italy. I feel like in the Euro League, you can have a bigger role and you can make a name for yourself.

"(It) would be a dream of mine.”