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Pops and GW, in Concert
Pops Mensah-Bonsu gives the Colonials a strong inside presence and is perhaps the most popular student on campus.
(Toni L. Sandys - The Washington Post)
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And coming back also offered Mensah-Bonsu the chance to revisit his larger-than-life on-campus persona, which has led Hobbs to dub his 6-foot-9, 240-pound forward "the Mayor."
"You see him walking down the campus, he's waving and shaking hands, he always looks like he's running for office," Hobbs said. "I would say he may be the most popular student here on campus."
Take the first day of the NBA season, for example, a day on which a camera crew from BET's "Maad Sports" arrived to film a day-in-the-life of Pops. The crew interviewed him in a courtyard; after that segment, freshman Joe Wall came up to shake Mensah-Bonsu's hand and wish him good luck. The crew followed Mensah-Bonsu on errands across campus, during which various school employees professed what a nice young man this was. The crew followed him into the campus food court, where one worker hugged him, another asked him whether he'd be playing for the Washington Wizards next season and several students waved.
"They might not know him personally, but everybody knows him," said sophomore Audie Fugett, a former walk-on with the women's basketball team.
His senior teammates said this is how it's been since Mensah-Bonsu was a freshman; they attribute his popularity to his effusive personality and his appealing first name. And newer teammates have quickly caught on. Transfer Cheyenne Moore said the first question he gets from GW students is, "Are you on the basketball team?" The second question is, "Do you know Pops?"
Mensah-Bonsu said he tries to be a regular student in other ways. He briefly played intramural soccer as a sophomore. He attends several men's soccer games a year and nearly every volleyball and women's basketball game, and he threw his support behind the student fan club's effort to draw more fans to the women's games.
He also knows life would be different if he were in the NBA. He wouldn't have a 19-inch TV, instead preferring an 84-inch projector screen. He wouldn't have a kitchen that he likens to an airplane cockpit. He wouldn't have spent the first night of the NBA season studying for a midterm exam in social psychology. He wouldn't have to walk across campus to sign for a monthly meal allowance of a few hundred dollars while the players he once auditioned against employ personal chefs.
Then again, if he were in the NBA, he would no longer be the Mayor of Foggy Bottom.
"When I was going to make my decision I made sure that it was my final decision. I wasn't going to have no regrets and no doubts or second thoughts," he said. "You've definitely got to experience the college life, you know what I'm saying? It only comes around once."
