Setbacks and bouncebacks: On Eban Hyams, India's first pro ballplayer

In life, opportunity is everything. In sports, it’s a necessityto succeed.

Holding the honor of being the first native of India to playprofessional basketball on an international stage, Eban Hyams foundhis chance elsewhere.

Having recently turned 42 years old, he shared his life story —a tale of hardship, perseverance and purpose.

“If I can inspire somebody and change someone's mind and helpsomebody get through something in life, then why not?” Hyams toldBasketball News over the phone. “Because I didn't have a silverspoon. I grew up in a single-parent house. My father passed awaywhen I was seven. So we came through hard times, but hard timesmake people stronger.

“So that's why I tell people, 'Don't worry about your situationnow and how hard it is. Believe me, it's actually making youstronger for the long run.’”

Born and raised in Pune, Maharashtra, India, Hyams dreamt ofbeing a professional athlete. At that time, he hadn’t even thoughtabout basketball with only a 10-foot hoop and one Size 7 ball touse. Instead, he played cricket (the most popular game there) andsoccer (the first game he loved), and Hyams excelled at both at TheBishop’s School. A career in sports, though, was a rarity withoutthe proper connections and finances.

Tragically, when he was just seven years old, his father Erickdied. Hyams and his two siblings lived near their uncle’s army basewith their mother Marilyn, who worked late hours to support herchildren, so Hyams’ aspirations appeared to be a fantasy. However,young Eban was quite persuasive, and his mom kept an openear.

With family living over six thousand miles away in Australia,Hyams and his family moved abroad to Sydney when he was 12. He wasmet with many challenges he hadn’t faced, including racism, butpushed through.

Soccer wasn’t as big of a deal in Australia as it was back home.Two sports were: Basketball and rugby. Trying his hand on thepitch, a scrawny, teenage Hyams “almost killed myself a couple oftimes,” which led him to a hardwood floor for the first time in hislife.

“I couldn't touch the nets, couldn't make a basket to save mylife. I didn't even know that much about the game,” Hyams said. “Wedidn't come from a basketball background, didn't have thefundamentals. I just was so far behind. But, I just had passion andI just blocked out all the noise and just kept at it, kept playing'til I just eventually started growing and getting better.”

While his uncle and siblings were in his ear telling him to stopwasting his time and work in information technology, engineering orthe medical field, Hyams was busy watching NBA games and improvingin the gym. He had ambition, and was dead set on making it to theAssociation.

At 15, Hyams began competing on the court as he attendedCambridge Park High School. As he grew in size and stature, so didhis game. Eventually, he earned a scholarship to Terra SanctaCollege (now known as St John Paul II Catholic College) and suitedup there. His talent was so special that it caught the attention ofthe Penrith Panthers, a semi-pro club in the Australian BasketballAssociation. He played there for three seasons before deciding amove to the United States was his next toward achieving hisobjective.

Hyams needed to be around good players and good coaching, andhis first stop was the College of Coastal Georgia, a junior collegein Brunswick. After one year in the States, Hyams came back toSydney. Awaiting him was an open invitation to play against theBoomers — the Australian national team.

“They were going to the Olympics at that time in 2004. It waslike my coming out party because no one knew who I was,” Hyamssaid. “And I just came and showcased, and I balled out in thatgame. I even had probably one of the best poster dunks on the bestdefender who used to guard Kobe (Bryant) and LeBron (James) for theAustralian team [Glen Savel].”

The showing impressed Aussie head coach Brian Goorjian so muchthat he tried to convince Hyams to go to Metro State in Colorado toplay under Mike Dunlap, who Goorjian had coached against in theNational Basketball League in previous years. Even so, despitehaving the chance to play for a powerhouse Division II school withtwo recent championship seasons, Hyams he’d only get to the NBA bybeing a Division I athlete. So, he declined the offer and went backto the U.S.

Hyams instead chose to transfer to Perimeter College at GeorgiaState University in Decatur. Unfortunately, his playing time wasn’tup to par with what he was looking for. With talented guardsalready there, it was tough sledding to find a spot in therotation. Any possibility of going D-I and previous offers he hadvanished. And just like that, in 2005, Hyams’ college career wasover.

Again, Hyams returned to Australia. Garnering little interestfrom teams, he figured a new short-term goal was in order: Reachthe NBL. Thankfully that summer, the AND1 Tour hit his part oftown. Daniel Moldovan — who nowadays represents talents like JoshGiddey, Dyson Daniels, Xavier Cooks, Mojave King and more from thecountry through Octagon Sports — was able to get Hyams on theteam.

“I went on tour with them in 2005 across the country. I justheld my own and I got the nickname 'Do It All.' Cause I wasshooting, passing, dunking, rebounding, getting blocks, gettingsteals. And nobody got me in AND1,” Hyams recalled. “Like, theywere trying to get every player that played on the team (to do it).The best thing is that I held my own and it was the bestopportunity and a great way for me to get exposure for theNBL.”

And so, following another stint in the ABA with the SydneyComets, another team came calling. In their first season as a partof the NBL in its efforts to connect Asia and Australia, theSingapore Slingers offered Hyams his first professional contractahead of the 2006-07 campaign.

“It was like such a sign of relief because I think there were somany naysayers around me that were like, 'You're never gonna be apro player, man. You're wasting your time.' They just wanted toprove me wrong, you know? And I didn't necessarily want to provethem wrong. I wanted to prove myself right, that I knew that Icould do that,” Hyams said.

“I think just being able to say that I made it and I didn'tlisten to (those doubters) and I didn't give up. I said when Isigned that first contract and finally was a professional athlete,that is a moment that I'll never forget and that's something thatnobody can take away from me.”

Even with achieving what he set out to do, Hyams’ debut seasondidn’t go quite as planned. For one, after putting together asuccessful summer league with the team, he wasn’t afforded theminutes he believed he earned. On top of that, the travel fromcountry to country was exhausting.

“Joe Ingles and me were rookies that year. I had better numbersthan Joe Ingles (during the summer). The difference is that he gotto start on the team and I really wasn't getting (the samechance),” Hyams said. “I was averaging 5 minutes of court time andI was averaging 5 points at the same time. And I really wasn't toohappy sitting cause I felt like I was good enough to play and Iproved myself.

“We kept flying back to Australia every weekend to play. So anine-hour flight to play three games and then to fly right back.And it was a lot of other different challenges. It was tough.”

He felt coming back to the NBL for another year wouldn’t be thebest idea, so he turned down the Slingers and played for the ABA’sBankstown Bruins for a bit. He then trekked west to Israel to tryout for Hapoel Galil Elyon in the Israeli Basketball PremierLeague.