High school coach Jason Hankewich recently attended a couple of NBA development league camps in the U.S. and he hopes to continue his dream of one day playing in the NBA.
Kevin McBain
of The Clarion
He’s the kind of guy you can’t miss.
Lots of energy, very social … oh yeah, and he is six-foot-eight.
Jason Hankewich grew up in the Kindersley area, playing basketball through high school, then he moved on to coaching high school boys basketball, which he has done for the past seven years.
He’s always loved the game and making it to the professional level has always been his dream.
“I finished last year’s basketball season coaching the boys and I realized that I don’t have any more goals, nothing to strive for,” he said. “But one of my players reminded me that I never did pursue my dream of playing professional basketball.
“I realized that I never did and right now I don’t have much on my plate and this was the time to it,” he added.
He decided to go for it and has been working out for the past six months and has lost about 60 pounds over that time.
One of his players told him he should go to Memphis for a tryout camp with the Memphis Husle, a development league team for the National Basketball League’s Memphis Grizzlies.
So it was off to Memphis for tryouts Sept. 23 and 24. About 150 players from all over the U.S., along with this Canadian, were put through drills and games.
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“I was hoping to get on for sure,” he said. “The Hustle is a G-league (formerly D-league) development team that the NBA uses as a development team and players from there can get called up to the big show if needed.”
Hankewich said that he had a great camp and although he didn’t make the final roster, he left encouraged.
“It was great. I did well and they did ask me to come back,” he said. “They did take a couple of guards out of the camp and that’s what they had room for. I’m a power forward and that’s not what they were looking for this time.”
He said that the team recently finalized their roster and his name wasn’t on the list. Although disappointed, he was encouraged to push towards his goal even harder.
He said that the coaches were impressed with his visibility on the court and his defensive play. He wants to continue to work on his ball-handling skills and his offence.
Hankewich said he was also recognized by the media and gave a few interviews while he was there.
“It was great to be recognized that way,” he said. “Many players weren’t.”
Hankewich said he’ll work even harder on his physical conditioning and his game, and plans on going back to the camp next year.
While down south, he also attended a camp at Salt Lake City for the G-league team there. He said that camp didn’t go so well.
“That started off fairly well, but then I hurt my back and it kind of went downhill from there,” he said.
Along with the opportunity to go back to the Memphis camp next year, he’s hoping to get an invited to the nationwide tryouts and says if you get the invite, you’re put into a draft pool and from there, teams choose from the pool and it’s almost a guarantee that you’ll get chosen.
Hankewich said he’ll continue to work hard in pursuit of his dream, while coaching the boys senior basketball team and playing as much as he can, including Monday night basketball nights at Kindersley Composite School, where he invites everyone to come out and play no matter their skill level, beginning at 8:30 p.m.
He will also be kept busy looking after a future baller – his daughter, Ellie Jenny Hankewich, who was born Oct. 19.
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