Submitted photos – Mo Charlo, right, alongside Bronny James at a South Bay Lakers game.

By Ray Hamill — Basketball has been kind to Mo Charlo.

When he was younger, it gave the former Eureka Logger a sense of purpose and direction. As he grew older it gave him a sense of identity and a lot of joy.

And as he grew older still, it gave him a playing career in the professional ranks that has lasted almost 20 years and exposed him to the world and a life full of friends that in his own words he will be forever grateful to know.

And now, perhaps most gratifying of all, it’s giving him a dream start to the next chapter in his life.

This fall, Charlo was hired as an assistant coach with the South Bay Lakers, a farm team for the Los Angeles Lakers that plays in the NBA G League.

And when your first-ever job as a coach is with one of the biggest franchises in the world of sports, you know the basketball gods have been kind to you.

“It’s so surreal,” the former Eureka Logger and local standout said.

After almost two decades playing professional ball, the 41-year-old Charlo knew it was time to begin looking at other options in his life, or, in his own words, “at some time the basketball is going to stop bouncing for me.”

So earlier this year he enrolled in the NBA development coaching program, and when a coaching job with the Lakers organization opened up, he jumped at the opportunity.

“When the job came up, I obviously applied, and I thought my initial talk with (South Bay head coach) Zack (Guthrie) went well,” Charlo said. “It was my first formal interview outside of (playing) basketball and I was a little nervous, but I killed the interview.”

He clearly wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“Four days later, JJ Reddick, the head coach of the Lakers, called me and offered me the job and said I was the guy they wanted,” Charlo said. “I stood back and I said ‘wow,’ because it’s very hard to get your foot in the door. It was a blessing. It’s hard to even put into words.”

Mo Charlo at last year’s Eureka Loggers alumni game.

Charlo coached his first game with the South Bay Lakers this past weekend at the annual G League tip-off tournament, and it was a winning start for the new coach and his new team.

In the lead up to the season opener, Charlo spent some time coaching with Reddick and the Los Angeles Lakers players, including father and son Lebron and Bronny James, the former of which is considered by many to be the greatest player in the history of the sport.

And Charlo admits that experience was an eye opener.

“Just sitting in the coaches meetings with JJ and the other coaches, and listening to them talk about game plans, I was thinking I’ve come along way from being a young kid in Humboldt County with a dream,” he said. 

For much of the build up to the new season, Charlo says he was working daily with a small group of players that included LeBron and Bronny James, as well as Max Christie.

“They’re my guys,” he said with a chuckle. “To be able to be around them and see how Lebron works … He’s the best in this generation, maybe ever, and he’s accomplished everything he needs to accomplish, but he comes in every day with the mindset he hasn’t accomplished anything.”

Charlo’s basketball journey has been a long and winding road and it’s one that has taken him all around the world and exposed him to a host of legendary players.

Mo Charlo with current Eureka Loggers head coach Jimmy Rodgers.

He was a three-sport star during his time at Eureka High School, playing baseball, football and basketball, and after graduation in 2002 he took his talents to Diablo Valley College, playing basketball for the Vikings.

Two years later, he transferred to play for the university of Nevada, where he would qualify for the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years.

He turned pro after his time with the Wolf Pack, and that was the beginning of an 18-year journey that saw him play all over the world and gain some incredible life experience, including time in France, Belgium, Mexico, Japan, China, the Philippines and Qatar, as well as seven years and multiple stops in the NBA G League.

In his own words, he has played in “too many countries to remember.”

Along the way, he has played alongside and befriended some of the biggest names in the history of the sport, including the legendary Allen Iversen, Gary Payton, Lisa Leslie and Clyde Drexler.

“I’m blessed I got to travel the world with basketball,” he said. “Sometimes I sit back and I say ‘wow.’”

And he has relished every moment of the journey.

“It’s taken me places I never dreamt I would go,” Charlo said. “A lot of people I looked up to as a kid, they’re my friends. That part has been amazing.

“Every country has its perks and I’ve taken a lot from every country I’ve been to. I try to take a little from every country I’ve been to.”

More recently he has played in the Big3 league, a three-on-three basketball league founded by hip-hop musician and actor Ice Cube.

“That was some of the funnest basketball I’ve ever been around,” Charlo said. 

As for his favorite moment, Charlo admits there have been so many, but playing in Japan was one that definitely stands out.

“I think just the experience as a whole has been great,” he said. “But probably winning the championship in Japan in front of 15,000 people screaming and going crazy, that was a moment that stood out.

“And another thing I’ll always remember is developing these great relationships over the years all because of basketball.”

Next week, in part two of this exclusive look at the career of arguably the most successful basketball player to ever come out of Humboldt County, we’ll take a look at the adversity Mo Charlo had to overcome on his way to success, why he will always hold Humboldt County close to his heart, what the future holds for him, and how he intends on giving back to the community that shaped him as a person.