Just a kid from Sicklerville — Kyle Hines’s docuseries shows his journey to the Euroleague Summit
If you wanted the blueprint for an American basketball player who would thrive in Europe, who would you pick?
You could pick Anthony Parker, a hard-working shooting guard who alternated between high-impact scorer and versatile role player depending on where he played. You could pick Mike D’Antoni, who starred with Real Madrid in the 1970s before becoming a prominent European, and then NBA coach. Maybe you would pick Ekpe Udoh, who struggled to translate his skill set to the NBA, but found a way to make his passing, rim protection, and post scoring work in Europe, enough that he created a second chance at the NBA out of it.
Or, perhaps you could pick Kyle Hines.
Hines has been playing in Europe for a decade, and while he hasn’t experienced the NBA in the way that Parker, Udoh, or even D’Antoni did, he instead has established himself as one of Euroleague’s consummate role players. Hines has won about all there is to win in European basketball. He’s been an MVP of the Italian 2nd division. He’s won the VTB League, the top league in Russia, four times. He’s won a Greek League title and a German Bundesliga title as well. And to top it all off, he’s won three Euroleague titles, too. He’s done so without being a primary scorer on any of those teams — he’s averaged 9.1 points per game over his seven seasons, instead building a career around his defensive versatility, rebounding, and shooting. He’s a valuable piece on a perennial contender, and has helped drive the small-ball movement in Europe that has coincided with a shift to that style of play in the NBA.
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But to understand why Hines is a role model for prospective American players heading to Europe, you have to go beyond the numbers and championships. To understand the impact of his career fully, you have to understand the full extent of his journey. Starting this week, fans will get the opportunity to do this, as a new documentary series profiling Hines’s career called “Just a Kid from Sicklerville” will hit Youtube on Nov. 1. The documentary is a look into Hines’s life and career, and the sacrifices he’s made to be able to have the career he has in Europe.
Kyle Hines plays center for CSKA Moscow. He doesn’t have the typical build of a center — at 6-foot-6, 230 pounds, the 31-year old is about the size and build of Jae Crowder. That’s part of the reason he’s over here. When he graduated from UNC-Greensboro in 2008, the league was not where it is today in terms of the acceptance of undersized big men. To play in the NBA as a frontcourt player under 6-foot-8, he had to be an elite rebounder or defender like Malik Rose. or an offensive savant like Boris Diaw. The odds were further stacked against him as a small-school player — even though he beat out a freshman Stephen Curry for his conference’s Player of the Year award. Hines went undrafted in 2008, and after a Summer League stint with the Charlotte Bobcats, he faced a difficult decision: Try the uphill battle of an NBA training camp, or commit to a European offer that had materialized in Italy’s 2nd Division.
“When I was coming out of school I was like every collegiate player coming out, my dream was making the NBA,” Hines told The Step Back. “I had some guaranteed camp invites coming out that year, but after meeting the coach of the team in Italy, he kind of talked and convinced me that it was in my best interests to come overseas, to come to Italy and develop my game, learn, work on my skills, then try to come back and see if I can get back into the NBA.”
Once you get more experience with European basketball it’s kind of an easy transition. Basketball is basketball.
The team Hines committed to was Veroli, a now-defunct small-budget team from the Lazio region of Italy, about 25 minutes outside of Rome. The coach was Andrea Trinchieri, who now coaches Euroleague side Brose Bamberg in Germany. Instead of being the last man on an NBA roster, the center from south Jersey would be spending the winter of 2008 on a mountainside in rural Italy. A lot of players who head to Europe will talk about culture shock — Hines was about to experience about the biggest shift in extremes you could imagine.
“The town only had 5,000 people there, one stoplight, one gas station, probably only three people in the entire town that spoke English. So coming from South Jersey, the Philadelphia area, it was definitely a huge transition. I almost felt like I was going back in time,” said Hines.
On the court, the transition was easier. Hines won MVP of the Italian League 2nd division in 2009, and after a solid 2009-2010 season, he made the jump to the Euroleague with Bamberg. A couple of Summer League stints with Orlando and New Orleans intervened, but Hines was in Europe to stay. “Basically what ended up happening was that I came over to Italy and I kind of fell in love with European basketball,” Hines said.
Since then, Hines has established himself as a staple of several successful Euroleague squads. A stint with Bamberg turned into a larger deal with Olympiacos, where he won back-to-back Euroleague championships in 2012 and 2013, and that turned into a deal to move to CSKA Moscow, where he plays today. Through nine seasons, Hines has played in four different countries, and each location has presented its own challenges — mostly off the court.
“Each country I’ve been to, that’s kind of been a different circumstance,” Hines said. “Coming from Veroli where it’s like a small town of almost 5,000 people. Then when I moved to Bamberg, Bamberg is a little bit bigger city, still kind of small, still kind of quaint. It’s about 70,000 people. It wasn’t huge but it was still bigger than a mountainside town. Then when I moved to Athens [home to Olympiacos], Athens was almost like paradise. It was warm all the time there, I was right by the beach, it was a great culture, it was relaxed, everybody spoke English, it was a very easy transition. Then I moved to Moscow, which is like a huge city with almost 12-15 million people. The weather was almost completely opposite from Athens where it’s sunny almost 11 months out of the year. Moscow you get summer two months out of the year, nine months where it’s cold or snowing. So each city was like a different transition.”
Often, when you think of a player switching teams, you think of the impact on the player through the lens of his career. How will he fit in with his new team’s scheme? Is this a step up or step down in role for him? Is he closer to winning a title? Rarely do we consider the transition for the player off the court, which is where Hines says the transition is more difficult. “You know, once you get more experience with European basketball it’s kind of an easy transition. Basketball is basketball,” Hines said. “You got used to traveling, being outside of your home town and your home city.”
Instead, the challenges come off the court, especially for new players to the continent. “I think the biggest transition is a lot of guys coming here, they don’t necessarily have an open mind, they don’t necessarily want to you know come and live and experience the culture, get a chance to get outside of the apartment. A lot of times, they spend the whole 9-10 months inside the apartment, playing video games or on social media,” Hines said. “You know, we only spend four or five hours a day in practice. The other 20, 19 hours you’re off the court doing something different, so a lot of guys, they don’t necessarily know how to handle themselves.”
Some guys come over here blind. They don’t necessarily know what life is like over there.
That decision to get immersed in the lifestyle and the culture of the places he’s played in was instilled in Hines from an early point in his career. At Veroli, Hines says he was influenced by current Celtics assistant Jerome Allen, among the other veterans on the roster. The former Timberwolves and Pacers player was in the last stages of his career, and Hines received a lot of advice on how to use his time in Europe wisely. Hines says that appreciating where he gets to play is a big part of how he thrives. “I had the opportunity because I play basketball over here to…see a lot of countries and different cities that a lot of people spend a life time trying to travel to for a weekend. I get an opportunity to live in these cities.”
Living with Hines is his wife, Gianna, and his daughter, Anya. The two have traveled with Kyle to Moscow and back over the last few years, and he says that this was one of the hardest parts of playing abroad, at first. “Well eventually when my wife and my daughter first came over, there was initial culture shock for them, just because you know going to Russia, being in the States you hear all these basic stereotypical things about Russia,” said Hines. “They’re kind of like a natural adversary for us, so going over there in Moscow’s almost like the Rocky movies, or the people there are generally mean, or stoic.”
However, Hines says that CSKA has been instrumental in helping his family transition. “Basically, I guess you could say their motto was, ‘We want to make sure that we have everything off the court taken care of so that when we get on the court we have no worries and no bothers.’ We can go out and play basketball. So it definitely helps out family-wise. My wife is very close to management there, and like I said, whatever we need, they’re just a phone call away.”
Arguably, Hines’s success in the European game hinges on his ability to thrive off the court as much as his talent on it. The 2016 Euroleague Best Defender couldn’t have made that mark on the game without his ability to immerse himself in the culture and thrive off the court, and that part has made him what he is today as a starter for one of the best teams in Europe. Now, he hopes to pass that on to others, using “Just a Kid from Sicklerville” as a way to both connect with fans and give new American players a “How to” guide to navigating their initial seasons in Europe. Hines said that he and his friends drew inspiration from the Hoop Dreams documentary, and aim to give prospective European players a chance to see what life is like before they come to their new situation.
“Some guys come over here blind. They don’t necessarily know what life is like over there. So we thought we could possibly give guys the opportunity to get a glimpse of what life is like over here for an American playing overseas,” says Hines. The documentary aims to bridge that gap, providing some of the lessons that Hines learned from players like former Suns guard Casey Jacobsen and Maryland legend Kenny Gatlin upon arriving in Europe.
Hines said the series aims to be honest, describing both the negatives of living abroad, but the positives as well. European clubs have gotten some bad press in the past, in terms of players not being paid and the continued fight for player’s rights being a hot topic, one that Hines is at the forefront of himself. But there are clear positives to the league as well, including the travel, the opportunities, and the security that comes with making it to a high-level club. Hines aims to convey that to the global basketball fan, who gets the opportunity for an inside look at the lives and experiences of a player at the top of the European game.
Hines has established himself as one of the flagship American players in the European game today. He may not be a top scorer or MVP candidate, but his solid play and leadership are invaluable tools for a CSKA Moscow team that is currently 3-1 in Euroleague and is looking for a second Euroleague title in three years this season. He’s the perfect player for young basketball players moving anywhere in Europe to learn from, and his experiences at both the lower division level and the peak of the Euroleague mountain will provide an excellent guide for both fans and players to get a look at how to thrive as a player and as a person in the game of basketball outside of the NBA. “Just a Kid from Sicklerville” aims to show that success is achievable overseas, if you’re willing to put in the work and immerse yourself in the culture of your new home.
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“There’s so many different experiences, a lot of people, especially these guys coming out of college, they think that the NBA, the D-League are the only opportunities they have for themselves. So for me, I want to be able to give a small glimpse of ‘Listen, if you don’t make it to the NBA, or you don’t make it to the G-League, go overseas and make a good career for yourself and for your family.’”