Big East Player of the Year (with DeJuan Blair) (2009)

Hasheem Thabeet (born Hashim Thabit Manka on February 16, 1987 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) is a Tanzanian college basketball player for the UConn Huskies in the USA. At 7'3" and 263 lbs, Thabeet is the tallest player ever to play for the Huskies. He did not begin to play basketball until the age of 15, when he began to watch pickup games in Tanzania. Thabeet is projected to be a first round selection in the 2009 NBA Draft after deciding to forgo his final year of eligibility.

Thabeet began playing basketball when he was in Makongo secondary school in Dar es salaam Tanzania. He was not interested in playing, but when he attended once in a street basketball practice, one player was amazed by his height and offered him sports shoes and invited him to come to play the next day. As a member of his school basketball team, he was selected to compete in the East African Games in Nairobi, Kenya where an agent saw him and offered him a basketball scholarship in the United States. In Tanzania, people where surprised when he was walking in the streets.