Watch: Michigan basketball departs for Final Four in Indianapolis
Watch: Michigan basketball departs for Final Four in Indianapolis on Wednesday, April 1, 2026.
This is the story of the first Spanish man to ever play in a Final Four and the very first thing he thought when he laid eyes in America:
“I was impressed,” Aday Mara says, “with its size.”
Wait. Isn’t that what America thinks when it sees him?
Here is a college kid who has to duck under door frames, who, at 7 feet 3, layers pillows at the end of his bed so his legs won’t dangle. Who, ever since he was a boy, has been buying two pairs of pants, cutting them in half, and sewing them together so they would reach his ankles.
Mara is a giant in every way — except the bad ones. No giant ego. No giant complex about his height. He is 87 inches worth of a smile just waiting to happen.
“What can I do about it?” he says, chuckling. “Cut my legs in half?”
Mara, whose expressive eyes, dark bangs and mustache suggest a 1966 Paul McCartney, is more than just 1.) the most unique weapon on the Michigan basketball team; 2.) the Big Ten defensive player of the year; 3.) a shot-blocking machine; 4.) an elite-level passer; and 5.) an often unstoppable post presence.
He also 1.) grew up amongst Roman ruins in a Spanish city that dates to back to the 1st century BCE; 2.) moved 6,000 miles away, without his family, to play college basketball in sunny Los Angeles; 3.) left frustration there to find a home in much colder Ann Arbor, Michigan, and 4.) is now two wins away from a national championship.
In other words, Aday Mara is that rare example of taking what nature gives you, and adjusting your nature accordingly.
‘An A-plus human being’
Let’s start with the height. As an only child, Mara was destined to be tall. His father, Javier Mara, is a 6-7 ex-pro basketball player. His mother, “Gely” Gomez, is 6-3 and a former volleyball star. By the time Aday was in grade school, he was a head above all the other kids.
By the time he was 14, he’d reached 7 feet.
People around him, his father included, steered him toward basketball at a young age, but told him not to worry when “my body wasn’t ready,” and his long limbs made him slower or seemingly weaker than smaller, more coordinated kids.
“Your time will come,” his parents assured him, a mantra he has lived by to this day. Aday made the Spanish professional leagues by the time he was 16, became the subject of a legal tussle between his pro team and UCLA when he was 18, rode the bench with the Bruins when he was 19 and 20, then transferred to Michigan last fall to play for Dusty May.
Up to that point, “your time will come” was an annoying anthem. Although UCLA had promised a bigger role, it never arrived, and Mara, who began therapy to deal with the frustration, was starting to think promises were just tools coaches used to lure you.
But May was different, Mara says.
“He told me, ‘I think you can be my starting center, and I think you can do great.’ And he didn’t change his mind. He didn’t say one thing and do another.”
May urged Mara to concentrate on two areas: his transition game up and down the court, and being more physical. In a word, “meaner.”
Which doesn’t come easily to Mara. His default mode is kind, easygoing, funny, qualities that have led May to label him “an A-plus human being.”
But sometimes, in major college basketball, you have to lose the Mr. Congeniality award.
“Most of the coaches that I had said the same thing,” Mara admits. “That I’m always like, smiling. Sometimes they say that I’m goofy.”
Is there a Spanish word for goofy, he is asked?
“Yeah, but it’s not a good word,” he says. “It sounds like a curse, you know?”
‘It’s hard to be mean’
Mara has largely shed that curse this season, rejecting shots a school-record 100 times, calling for the ball down low and elevating for hooks, lay-ins or dunks. He has set career numbers for points (11.8) rebounds (6.8) and blocks (2.6) per game. He grabs motivation for physicality wherever he can.
“It’s hard to be mean when nothing happens,” he admits. “When something happens, and I get frustrated, I can be super mean. But that something has to happen.”
He may find that something this Saturday in Michigan’s semifinal game against Arizona. The Wildcats will likely cover Mara with 7-foot-2 center Motiejus Krivas, a junior (like Aday) and a former international pro (like Aday) but a guy who is 40 pounds heavier.
Mara will have extra motivation. His parents will be in the stands in Indianapolis. Although they have visited a few times over the Christmas holidays, this will be the first time they get to see their son go for an American title.
“I told them we’re gonna play in a football stadium that holds 80,000 people,” Mara says. “They couldn’t believe it.”
College basketball has no parallel in Spain. Teenage talent there is snapped up by club teams, national teams and professional squads. Mara admits he never saw a Final Four until last year.
“It’s not big where I come from. It’s getting bigger, though.”
And, should he be cutting down the nets Monday night, it will no doubt skyrocket. Pau Gasol’s success with the Lakers in the NBA propelled pro basketball to mass popularity in Spain. (Mara admits Gasol was a childhood idol.)
Now Aday has the chance to do the same for the college game.
Ready for a ‘very cool’ milestone
Still, what impresses most about this young man is his demeanor, his maturity, and his apparent comfort in his own skin. He admits that people actually ask him, “How’s the weather up there?” along with a handful of other clichés. But he never takes offense.
“As long as people are nice,” he says, “I will be smiling and make the jokes. I get used to people staring. I can tell if they will right away. If we are in the airport, I will walk past someone and I will say to my teammates, ‘that person will be turning to stare at me, turn around and look.’ And they are.”
He laughs. He likes to make a game out of things. He even empathizes with people’s reactions. “It’s hard to see a 7-footer every day, you know?” he says.
And while it’s no joke that he cannot find a car to drive (“I hit the wheel with my knee, and then I hit that [console] thing with my leg, so I cannot hit the gas.”), still he insists he would not trade his frame for a smaller one. He always wanted to be tall. And he knows it is a ticket to great opportunity. Mara will no doubt be a high NBA draft pick once he declares. He says he has not yet made his mind up about returning to U-M or going pro. (“Both options are good right now.”)
But for this weekend, he is content making history, the first Spaniard to reach the men’s Final Four and, should they win it all, certainly the tallest player to ever claim a national championship for Michigan.
“I think in my head I can only imagine about 20% of what it will be like,” he says, owing to the fact that this will be his first look at a national title. “But that 20% is very cool.”
Hats off to a gentle giant who thought America was big when he got here and is on the lip of doing something awfully big himself. Life has been a series of adjustments, but to date, it seems, Mara has taken then all in stride. A long stride, perhaps. But — as he says — a very cool one.
Contact Mitch Albom: [email protected]. Check out the latest updates on his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow @mitchalbom on x.com.
