Salim London Chose Patience Over the Portal

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - May 11, 2026

Chasing a new opportunity after his freshman season was an option for Salim London. Chasing an opportunity, however, didn’t interest him.

Despite never entering his name in the transfer portal, London heard from programs interested in prying him away from UAB.

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” said London. “It was a few DMs or whatever. I might get texts from other people saying like, ‘Hey, we can see you coming over here doing this or that.’ Things like that. I didn't get anything from a head coach. It would be like assistant coaches or agents.”

London said he listened but wasn’t swayed by the sales pitch.

“I mean, I hear them out,” London said. “But at the end of the day, I keep the decisions I make within my family. So if they're going to text me, then they also texted my mom and my dad, too. I would tell them I'm going to go over the decisions with my mom and my dad or whatever.”

In the end, he remained at UAB, where he might be surrounded by an entirely new roster. Of the 12 scholarship players on last year’s roster in Andy Kennedy’s program, eight entered the transfer portal, two were out of college eligibility and KyeRon Lindsay-Martin has filed a NCAA waiver in hopes of receiving one more college season. If Lindsay-Martin receives the waiver then he will return to UAB. If not, then London is the only UAB player that didn’t head out of the door.   

“It wasn't really that difficult to me, I think it was pretty easy,” London said. “Just with the first year and how it went, I felt like Coach AK gave me a lot of opportunity as a freshman. So I just felt like, after talking to my parents, it just made sense to come back because if he's given me that opportunity as a freshman, coming in another year, I'm sure he would give me even more of an opportunity.”

London, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound guard, played in all 32 games with 12 starts during his first college basketball season.  He averaged 4.9 points and 2.3 rebounds per game while shooting 34.7 percent overall from the field and 29.5 percent on 3-pointers. He had a season-high 19 points in 36 minutes in a loss to Troy and eight of his starts came during American Conference play.

“I remember in the game and like in the huddle, I was thinking to myself, ‘You just proved yourself that you can do this,” London said of his performance against Troy, which came in the 11th game of the season.

His roughest patch came late in conference play when he went 1-for-9 in a home loss to Tulane.

“I forgot who we played before that, but I didn't play that good,” said London, whose father, Tarik, is a former player at the University of Alabama. “Then we played Tulane at our place and we ended up losing. I didn't play good. So I was kind of like in my head. I talked to my folks about it and they just told me to stay in the gym. My dad even came up here to work me out just so I could see a familiar face. I'll probably say that was probably my toughest stretch.”

Overall, though, it was a solid first season for London, who was part of three state championship teams at Hoover High. As soon as it ended, London sat down with Kennedy to talk about his path moving forward.

“We went over some of the things that happened my freshman year,” London said. “He told me ‘Look, we know you're a better player than the numbers say. We want you to be a big piece next year.’ That's kind of like the main thing. He just built off of that, saying ‘Obviously, players make their biggest jump from their freshman to their sophomore year. We expect you to do that too. Keep working, stay in the gym.’”

He’s done just that while watching a locker room being filled around him. London said he’s got to meet some of his new teammates on their visits and kept a close watch on the whole process. He’s also preparing himself to be a leader, despite still being one of the younger players on the roster, when the team begins summer drills in June.

“I'm really excited to see how the season is going to go, to be honest,” London said. “I’ve met a few of them because I've worked out with them, like on their visits. I think our roster looks really good.”