He became the subject of widespread media attention following his time with Al-Nasr, a Libyan team owned by the family of Muammar Gaddafi.

Owumi played his final two seasons at Alcorn State in Lorman, Mississippi, but he failed to attract any attention from National Basketball Association (NBA) teams.

When conflict erupted, Owumi was trapped in Mutassim Gaddafi's apartment without food or electricity for several days in the midst of the violence, before he was able to escape to Egypt, where he was arrested and detained.

[18] Encouraged by their fairly successful basketball program and facilities, Owumi began attending the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) in the next year.

[18] He joined the team, which competed in the NJCAA, as a co-captain under coach Dave Chevalier with hopes of playing for an NCAA Division I program in the future.

[19][18] Owumi brought CCRI to its first NJCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship appearance in four years by defeating Lackawanna College on March 13, 2005.

[23] During his time at Monroe CC, he began attracting interest from basketball teams at Rutgers, San Diego State, and UCLA.

[25][26] On February 1, 2006, Owumi signed a letter of intent to play for Alcorn State, a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) and an NCAA Division I program.

[35] Owumi's 2007–08 season-high of 28 points came in an 81–75 Alcorn State loss to the Texas Southern Tigers on January 5, 2008; he added 9 rebounds and 4 assists.

[39] Following his Alcorn State career, Owumi was uncertain if he would be able to make the NBA after college, because of the relatively low talent level and popularity of the SWAC.

[54][45] By December 27, 2010, Owumi had arrived in the country, signing a lucrative deal with Al-Nasr, a team from Benghazi that played in the top Libyan league.

[55] Despite fears of the country's instability in the midst of the budding Arab Spring, and attempts by his girlfriend Alexis Jones to discourage him, he chose to remain with the team, prompted by the poor conditions in Macedonia.

Mercenary troops later searched his apartment for revolutionaries, but did not harm him after he showed them his American passport and Al-Nasr player card.

[55] Al-Nasr team president Ahmed Elturki told Owumi that the airport in Libya had been burned down by protesters and advised him to remain in his apartment.

[59] Approximately two weeks after violence broke out in Benghazi, Owumi received a call from his teammate Moustapha Niang, who said that Elturki would attempt to help the two of them escape the country.

[59][45] Elturki had arranged for a car to take them to an Egyptian refugee camp in Sallum, following Al-Nasr coach Sherif Azmy.

Going against his family's wishes, Owumi chose to follow his coach's advice, because he did not want his relatives to see his poor physical and mental state; he felt that he could recover by playing basketball.

[5][55][65] After returning to the United States, Owumi was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder, and continued to suffer from its effects in the years following.

[66] Stanley Ocitti and Sherrad Prezzie-Blue, players who already knew Owumi, suggested that Paul James, head coach of the Worcester Wolves of the British Basketball League (BBL), look into signing him.

[70] On February 8, he led Worcester to an upset win over the Newcastle Eagles in a BBL Trophy quarterfinal with a season-high 34 points and 9 rebounds.

[77] On September 28, 2013, to begin his second BBL season, Owumi scored 18 points and added 2 rebounds and 2 assists in a 117–60 win over the Surrey Scorchers.

[89][87] On April 26, 2015, in the BBL Play-off quarterfinals, Owumi posted a double-double of 18 points and ten rebounds, but the London Lions eliminated his team with a 106–67 win.

[75] In late June 2015, the Worcester Wolves released Owumi as part of a major roster shake-up that left only one player on the team.

[98][99] Owumi scored 23 points off 8-of-13 shooting, with 19 in the first half, on October 26 against the Leeds Force to help the Lions achieve a 6–0 start to the season.

[106] After the team announced his signing, he said, "Since being in the league, Surrey has had a great fan base and I can't wait to win some silverware for the organization.

[107] He wanted to join the Scorchers because head coach Creon Raftopoulos would give him more freedom to bring in players he knew to the team.

[113] After Owumi returned to the United States from Libya, his mother suggested that he write a book about his experiences living in Benghazi during the Arab Spring.

[58] Although initially wanting to forget those memories, he wrote his autobiography Qaddafi's Point Guard: The Incredible Story of a Professional Basketball Player Trapped in Libya's Civil War with Daniel Paisner, a New York Times bestselling author who had written for Whoopi Goldberg and Denzel Washington.

[115] Publishers Weekly called it a "resonant, moving memoir of an African athlete who survives incredible cultural and political challenges to play the sport he loves".

[8] In September 2016, Owumi wrote the fictional thriller The Fire Raven: Volume 1 about a female assassin trying to discover her past.