Zach Hankins Broke his nose in the victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv. Three days later he came up to play with a special mask and broke his nose once more, in a different place. In general, it feels like Hankins almost ends a game when he is injured, bruised or bleeding – with the special mask on his face recently only adding another touch to him being one of those “soul players”, the kind that any ambitious team needs. “If I have to get injured or sacrifice myself that’s what I’ll do,” Hankins said of the win over the Bakken Bears at the Arena. “For me, all that matters is that we win, and if I’m the one who has to suffer for it, then whatever.”
The Hapoel Jerusalem of the last few months is indeed a winning team, and Chin with the mask has a lot of shares in this success. Only his numbers perfectly illustrate this statement: he is the most stable player on Aleksandar Džikić’s staff, with 13 points and 12.1 rebounds per game – in which category he is in first place in the league. Along with DJ Cooper, who is dishing out assists at a historic rate, he is the only player in the league averaging a double-double. Against Hapoel Be’er Sheva on Friday, he had to rest, and without him – the Jerusalem offensive game looked and felt quite stuck, and it ended in a 71:60 loss. So it’s true, Hapoel Jerusalem is a deep team, whose strength is mainly teamwork and defense, but if there is one link that is the most central – you could say it’s Hankins.
Passed quite a bit on the way from Rashel to Jerusalem
Without detracting from Hapoel Jerusalem, it is likely that if not for a series of frustrating events, Hankins would be in a different place today. Maybe in the Euroleague, maybe even NBA. Hankins delivered an excellent half season in Nymburk (19/20), and from there he found himself in Israeli basketball for the first time when he joined Maccabi Rishon Lezion in the Corona season. He was excellent with 13 points per game and was one of the most prominent factors that led Rishon LeZion to the finals, when on the way he eliminated Hapoel Jerusalem in the semi-finals with an excellent performance of 20 points.
At the end of that season, he was a highly sought after player in Europe. Maccabi Tel Aviv and other Euroleague teams were interested, but Hankins ultimately chose Galatasaray – a team that was supposed to be another stepping stone for him on the way up. But then bad luck struck: Hankins tore his cruciate ligament and missed the entire season. After a full year, he signed with Melbourne Phoenix, but the team from the Australian league gave him up due to the fact that he had difficulty overcoming the serious knee injury. From there he continued to the development league and finished last season in Puerto Rico.
The chain of events caused a general doubt in his signing, certainly when he arrives as a relatively expensive player, with a salary of about 230 thousand dollars. “The whole world doubted his signing,” they said in Jerusalem. “We were mocked for paying him too much, there were people who even claimed that he was not fully qualified. Today everyone understands what a deal we made.”
In Jerusalem, it should be noted, they conducted extensive tests on Hankins before signing him in the summer. They spoke with Brad Greenberg, who trained him in Puerto Rico, and received warm recommendations, all this at the same time as they learned that his medical condition is indeed good and the long knee injury is completely behind him.
When the Reds decided to go for him, they were faced with tough competition from Tenerife, the BCL champion, and who is considered by many to be the best team in Europe outside of the Euroleague. In Jerusalem, first of all, they had to open the pocket and at the same time make him feel comfortable with the entire medical envelope of the club. The good relations of Guy Harel (who was very involved in building the squad this summer before he left) with his agent Dan Curtin, helped a lot to close the deal.
The indicators also show: Hankins is one of the most important in the group
Much like all of Hapoel Jerusalem, Hankins started this season slowly. The ability in the Winner Cup was not impressive, and although he was one of the few bright spots in the loss to Hapoel Holon in the opening round, he did not register in the second round against Herzliya. But it can be said that to a certain extent Hankins was the first swallow to herald the coming of the Jerusalem spring. He was also good in the lost game against Ludwigsburg at the Arena, and in fact the whole team became better as soon as more players got involved.
“Zach is our anchor, offensively and defensively,” they said in Jerusalem. “Many drills start with his ability to block well and roll into the paint. He finishes excellently, controls the area and also has an impressive defensive presence. It would not be unreasonable to say that he is our most important player.”
The dry data completely backs up this statement: he leads the team in all enterprises in the index, rebounds and blocks, being second only to Speedy Smith in the plus-minus category. He is in five of the six best combinations of Hapoel Jerusalem’s fives, leads the team in offensive rating (97.4 points per 100 possessions) and second, again to Smith, in net rating.
Tonight (7:00 p.m., 5LIVE) Hankins and Hapoel Yerushalayim will face their biggest test since the start of the season when they host Drushpaka. A win would send them straight into the top 16 of the FIBA Champions League, and if and when that happens, Hankins will have a significant stake in that. If he matches the team-high 16.6 points and 7.8 rebounds he’s posting in the BCL, he’ll make a lot of doubters eat a lot Hats, as Hapoel Yerushalayim has been doing recently, almost every week.
