By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
Sidigas Avellino has had a great season so far both in the Italian and Basketball Champions League but came across a setback once Demetris Nichols and Caleb Green got injured.
They were forced to play with seven players in the last BCL game against Banvit. Avellino lost but the squad showed major character putting on a fight until the very end. That’s especially true for Keifer Sykes who took over the leading role and improved his game to another level. The 25-year-old played the whole match and nailed 43 points which is the new BCL scoring record.
Once you delve into his story it comes as no surprise that Sykes is willing and able to take matters into his own.
Sykes committed to Green Bay Phoenix college and immediately got the chance to show what he is capable of. As the youngest player in the nation and a starter at that, he averaged 11.2 points and 3.3 assists per game. He was off to an amazing start but then an unexpected blow arrived. His father passed away from a heart attack and it almost broke Keifer:
“When I got home, my family was torn apart and I was the worst of all. Basketball was the last thing on my mind and I felt like I didn’t want to play anymore. All I wanted to do was be there for my mom and the family and fulfill my dad’s role. But when I finally got back to school, I knew what I had to do to make my father proud and that was to play this game with everything I had in order to create opportunities for my family like he did. This is when I began to challenge myself mentally like never before because I knew I had to get something out of this game”, he himself wrote for the Eastbayblog.
And he was doing it. In his senior year, Sykes scored a career-high 36 points against UIC to surpass the 2,000-point mark and became the only active player in the nation with 2,000+ points, 500+ assists, and 400+ rebounds. He also became the only player in Horizon League history to record those same career totals. He was named Horizon League Player of the Year twice.
Sykes went undrafted in the 2015 NBA Draft but was signed later by Austin Spurs. In his rookie season with Austin, he averaged 13.1 points, 3.3 assists, 3.6 rebounds while shooting 45.9% from the field. He stepped up in the playoffs as well notching 31 points and six steals pulling his team out of a 26-point deficit in a win-or-go-home game 3.
After joining the Golden State Warriors for 2016 Summer League, Sykes moved to Korean Basketball League signing with Anyang KGC. He averaged 15.1 points and led his team to the championship. Next destination was the Turkish second-tier league with Ankara DSI where he posted 22.4 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game. Finally, he joined Avellino this season and is averaging 15 points, 3.6 assists and 3.3 rebounds in Italy and 13.3, four assists and three boards in the BCL.
Sykes story is all the more inspiring when you find out that it’s not just basketball to him. Sykes was born in Chicago and has been set against the backdrop of the South and West side neighborhoods where gun violence is a major issue. His way around was basketball but not even it is disconnected from everyday troubles. One of his John Marshall Metropolitan High School coaches, Shawn Harrington, was hit by two bullets as he shielded his daughter during the attack in the city’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. One of his best friends, Levon Carter, made a huge mistake and was put in prison for a long time. Sykes had to take on the bad news all the time but he could take it and he got stronger for it. In fact, the 2018 documentary film ‘Chi-Town’ follows Keifer Sykes’ multi-year journey.
Make sure to watch it and make sure to follow Sykes in the Basketball Champions League as he pushes Avellino to new heights.
Photo Credit: Basketball Champions League