SHARPSHOOTER PUTS BASKETBALL IN REAR-VIEW MIRROR
Heslip didn’t quite make it to the NBA, but this elite player has left his mark on the game in Canada
One of the best shooters in the world according to no less an authority than Jerry Stackhouse has decided to leave the basketball court at the age of 29 and pursue a second career in business.
“There’s nobody I’d rather have take the last shot to tie or win a game over Brady,” Stackhouse the current head coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores and veteran of 970 NBA games said of Burlington, Ont., native Brady Heslip.
Heslip and Stackhouse share a championship having won with the G-league title together with the Mississauga 905s in 2017.
“Smartest player I ever coached,” Stackhouse said.
Heslip has been shooting a basketball since he was big enough to lift one, but after 10 years with the National team program, a taste of a couple of NBA training camp invites, a handful of Las Vegas summer league stints, a few tours in the G-league and plenty of high level overseas play, Heslip made the very tough decision this past summer to leave basketball for now and focus on the challenging business world.
Basketball, for the time being, is behind him he says. He’s not closing the door completely but his focus right now is on the fulltime MBA at the Smith School of Business at Queens.
He starts in January and Heslip has no regrets.
“Look as I’ve got a little older, I’ve become more of a realist and I have a sense of what I can and can’t do,” Heslip said. “I kind of ball parked it at, best-case scenario given what I do skill-set wise, I could probably play until I’m 34 or 35.
“My fear was to do that and, whatever it may be, save a million bucks and then I’m 35 and I’m coming home and I don’t know what to do,” Heslip said. “It’s pretty difficult to enter the corporate world or any job you might do entry-level at that age. So I thought with my experience and playing six years overseas and going to University in Texas (at Baylor) and playing in all these different countries helped me sort of shape a global perspective, that it was a good time and probably a pretty smart time to make this transition.”
Heslip turned down an offer to return to Turkey and what he called a “pretty enticing offer” from a French league team in order to pursue this challenge of a life in business.
“It just got to the point where I started thinking about the future and what the opportunity costs would be if I were to pursue this MBA,” Heslip said. “Just evaluating all the options and positioning myself strategically for the future, I felt that it was best to proceed with this.”
Heslip never fully realized his ambition to play in the NBA despite a couple of opportunities. In addition to attending training camp with the Raptors in 2016, Heslip had two separate stints with the Timberwolves after not being drafted out of Baylor. At 6-feet-2 and 180 pounds he wasn’t an imposing figure and while defending his position wasn’t his strong suit, very, very few could shoot the ball as well as he did from behind the threepoint line.
His first two games in the G-league in 2014 with the Reno Bighorns following three solid years at Baylor were a small sample of what was to come in his career. Heslip scored 78 points in those first two games and made 20 three pointers as Reno experimented with an uptempo, high volume three-point shooting approach.
Heslip was perfect for the role. But his prowess at the three-point line lead to an early departure as 20 games into the season Heslip left for the first of a handful of stops in the Euroleague, this one with the Bosnian team Igokea.
Over the next five years Heslip would make stops in four other leagues throughout Europe with that one 2016-17 season spent closer to home, first as a member of the Raptors pre-season roster for training camp and then that championship year with the
905s.
Leo Rautins, who coached Heslip during his earliest years with the national team considers him among the elite of sharpshooters this country has ever produced.
“The great thing about him is that he has the perfect shooters mentality,” Rautins said. “He never worried about how many he missed or made — he just shoots. He knows that’s what he does best and he fires away.
“I always appreciated his craftiness too.,” Rautins said. “From the time I saw him in a high school all-star game, I just liked his swag. It didn’t matter how many athletes or who was around him, he just found a way to do his thing.”
Stackhouse explains Heslip’s inability to crack an NBA roster this way.
“Athletically Brady doesn’t pass the look test and has some challenges with his lateral quickness which probably hindered him at the highest (read NBA) level,” Stackhouse said. “But he more than made up for his shortcomings on the defensive end with his ultra competitiveness and having an elite skill set which is shooting the basketball.”
Heslip said that season with the 905s under Stackhouse will always be one of his fondest basketball memories.
“Any time you win a championship that’s something special,” Heslip said. “Getting to play for Stackhouse was really special and him and I have a special relationship. We keep in touch to this day. Guys on that team I keep in touch with to this day too so being from Burlington and going to camp with the Raptors and winning a championship with the 905s that’s a pretty memorable year. My friends and family were able to watch me play and that was a special time for sure.”
Heslip took his time making this very important life decision to put basketball, at least for the time being, in his rear-view mirror. It made for a very chaotic summer.
The idea of doing his MBA had been percolating for the past few years. Some positive feedback from Queens in relation to getting a spot in the January intake pushed the timeline forward but there was still the opportunity to play with Canada this past summer at the FIBA World Cup.
Perhaps surprisingly, Heslip, who counts every opportunity he gets to play for his country “an incredible honour” was actually hoping he wouldn’t make the team this past summer, but that had nothing to do with his already full schedule.
“This summer I was truly hoping all those (Canadian NBA) guys would play and there would be no room for me,” Heslip said. “That may sound weird. But this is now my 10th year ... and I have done my time. I have got to experience all these incredible places and build these relationships and represent Canada and it’s no longer a selfish endeavour. It’s really about the program and what I would most want to see is the program be successful.”
As it turned out the format change to the World Cup which moved the championships back later in the summer and the mere distance one had to travel so closely to NBA training camps combined to put a major dent in the NBA participation in the tournament. Canada wound up with just two of a possible 17
NBA players on the roster.
Heslip didn’t get his wish to see all of Canada’s best representing the flag but it did mean one last opportunity for him and the sharpshooter loved every minute of it. His only regret is the group that did go to China failed to qualify directly to the Olympics.
“I’m obviously disappointed we were not able to qualify for the Olympics in China but I am happy we were able to do well enough to get into this (last chance qualifying) tournament,” Heslip said.
That comes up this June in Victoria, and based on the verbal commitments coming from around the NBA, Heslip’s wish of seeing Canada have its best basketball players when it needs them most just might become reality.
Having put in as much time and effort into the program over the past 10 years that Heslip has, he’s sure he’ll never lose his passion for the game, particularly the international game, and hopes to one day have another role with Canada Basketball, just not the playing one he recently left.
With a basketball IQ that coaches and teammates rave about, it was only natural that Heslip would consider a coaching role at some point in his life. And while that time is not now, he isn’t ruling out doing something like that in the future.
It’s not out of the question to suggest that following in his Uncle Jay Triano’s footsteps and taking over behind the bench for Canada might one day be in the offing for him.
For now that job is in the capable hands of the reigning NBA champion Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse.
“I always want to stay involved with basketball,” Heslip said. “I have been in constant communication with the guys at Canada Basketball and any way I can help I will always support the program and if there is an opening down the line for me to help or contribute in some way that is definitely something I will be interested in doing. But my main focus right now is school and putting my best foot forward at Queens.”
Heslip was already offered a graduate assistant position on Stackhouse’s Vanderbilt bench so the opportunity is there to begin building his coaching resume when he’s ready.
Look as I’ve got a little older, I’ve become more of a realist and I have a sense of what I can and can’t do ... I could probably play until I’m 34 or 35.
Immediately upon his return from China in September, Heslip said he was busy retaking he GMAT exam and then using some of his contacts, he secured some work experience on Bay Street in Toronto.
“Just to figure out what it’s like putting on a suit every day,” Heslip only half joked. “So I’ve been working at Oxford Properties for the past month and a half and I’ll finish up here at the end of December.”
Heslip, like most professional athletes making the transition to the working world, will no doubt miss the build-in camaraderie that comes with having played a team sport as long as he has, but he’s ready for a new challenge.
“For a lot of guys basketball is everything and for me for 29 years that was the case, but a lot of guys don’t realize they are going to have to do something after,” Heslip said. “Depending on what kind of life you want to live and what your aspirations are, you need to proactively plan for that, so for me this summer for me was that mindset shift and whether I do want to go into coaching later on or not, I’ll be a coach with an MBA but I’m going to take every opportunity I have to be successful after basketball also.”