Like old times
May 16, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Mike Lucas
Reunion for Josh Gasser and the boys was like they never left
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — When Josh Gasser found out Sam Dekker was going to celebrate his 22nd birthday in Madison, the timing couldn't have been more perfect for Gasser who had just gotten back from Germany and was scheduled to be in town to tape an interview with Big Ten Network.
Gasser passed the word on to the Chicago area crew — Frank Kaminsky, Duje Dukan and Ben Brust — and they also returned to campus for an impromptu reunion of former Wisconsin teammates. "It really wasn't planned," said Gasser who later tweeted, "What up Madison!! #TheBoysAreBack."
For one night in May, at least, they got much of the Final Four band back together.
"It was just really cool at first to see the guys again and I gave them hugs," said Gasser, who was an emotional catalyst for those deep March runs and anointed "Captain America" by Frank the Tank. "Two seconds later though, it was like we hadn't left each other. And it was pretty cool that way."
Cooler yet, Kaminsky, Dekker and Dukan were coming off rookies seasons with NBA franchises.
"The guys are kind of celebrities in a lot of ways, but for us, we're all just friends," Gasser said. "You'd mention it (the NBA) briefly. You'd ask Frank, "How was it playing? Or how different was the lifestyle?' Blah, blah. That's it. Overall, they were the same old guys joking around.
"It's cool to be able to be friends and not have to talk about basketball all the time. Most people when they see us on the street — or even family and other friends who don't quite understand the grind — they always want to talk basketball. We don't talk about it that much when we're together."
Kaminsky, the No. 8 overall pick in the 2015 draft, had the most to talk about. He appeared in 81 games and averaged 21 minutes, 7.5 points and 4.1 rebounds for the Charlotte Hornets.
Dekker, the No. 18 selection in the first round, had back surgery, missed three months and saw action in only three games with the Houston Rockets. As part of his rehab, he wound up in the D-League.
So did Dukan, an undrafted free agent with the Sacramento Kings. In his only appearance with the parent team, he had six points and four rebounds in the Kings' final game of the season.
"Having everyone together was like old times," Gasser said. "Nothing had changed."
Nothing? Kaminsky and Dekker, after all, are owners of million dollar contracts.
"They had a little nicer clothes, maybe a nice watch or something," Gasser conceded. "Frank was cool enough to be buy me a pair of shoes and he actually bought dinner for everyone. That was nice. I walked out of the restaurant and thought, 'Wait, did we pay?' But Frank handled it.'"
Laughing, he teased, "He'd better handle it."
You can imagine the buzz that the "boys" created wherever they went in Madison.
"People definitely had their phones in our faces a lot taking pictures and videos," said Gasser. "They definitely still remember the Final Fours and all of that and they're very proud of us. Especially with Frank… people go crazy around him."
Mind-you, he wasn't complaining. On the contrary. "It really made me remember how great our fans are at Wisconsin and how much support we had," stressed Gasser, speaking from his heart and for the others. "People were genuinely really nice and cool when we were out together."
Earlier in the day, Gasser was interviewed for nearly an hour by the Big Ten Network for an upcoming special on the Final Four teams. "I had a lot of free time being overseas to look back and think about stuff like that," he said. "Those were some of the best times that I've ever had."
Before going out to dinner, Gasser, Kaminsky, Dekker, Dukan and Brust posed for an Instagram photo with Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard in the locker room at the Kohl Center. They also got in the gym and broke a sweat with some of the current UW players. There was one exception.
"I'm injured," Gasser said wistfully, "so I couldn't play."
But it didn't spoil the homecoming or the reunion.
"It was a lot of fun," said Gasser. "I've been looking forward to that type of night for awhile."
It was short-lived. Last week, he had surgery on a couple of sports hernias.
"That's the frustrating part," he said. "I have to kind of start over again next year."
•  •  •  •
Gasser wasn't sure what was wrong.
"But I knew it was something," he said, "because I felt a pop in my ab and groin."
His first impulse was to look up information on a sports hernia. This was 10 games into his season with Lowen Braunschweig, a German League team in a city of the same name, Braunschweig or Brunswick (English), one hour from Hanover, two and one-half hours from Berlin.
"That was very difficult to be overseas," Gasser said, "and not to be able to play."
His American teammates were very conscious of the rookie's frustration. That included Kenny Frease (Xavier), Keaton Grant (Purdue), Tyrone Nash (Notre Dame), Derek Needham (Fairfield) and Amin Stevens (Florida A&M). Gasser, 24, was the youngest in this group; Grant, 29, was the oldest.
"It's a business, a tough business at times," he said, "and they really helped me out."
On top of the injury, Gasser had to adjust to living on his own in a strange country.
"You find out really quickly that being a professional (athlete) is very different," said Gasser, a native of Port Washington. "A lot of my teammates had wives and kids; some were single. But everyone was at a different stage in their life whereas in college, you're all kind of the same.
"I'm used to living with three other guys with four others living right next door. So you're always with people and doing something. Now, when you come home from a practice, you're alone, so it's very different. To be honest, at first, it was kind of nice. But it got lonely and a little boring sometimes, too."
He had no complaints about Braunschweig. Or its people. Or its food. Or its beer.
"I really liked how different of a lifestyle it was," Gasser said. "Being in college, it was kind of five years of the same thing. So having a real big change of pace and seeing other countries — I traveled to five of them — and experiencing different cultures was the coolest part.
"Obviously, I would have liked the basketball part to be the best."
But he had to deal with the disappointment of being injured. Gasser had some history in this area. At Wisconsin, he took a redshirt and missed an entire season (2012-13) after knee surgery. So he knew it was only natural to feel a little detached from his German teammates.
"It was similar," he said, "to the year that I tore my ACL."
Upon further review, he also said, "If I could handle that I can handle anything."
Unbeknownst to outsiders, he also had hernia surgery before the start of his senior year.
"So I kind of had an idea of what it was going to be like," he said, "in terms of rehabbing."
Initially there was a greater unknown this time because his injury was not diagnosed as a sports hernia. Once it was, the treatment was conservative with the hope that surgery could be avoided.
Gasser was reminded of UW tailback Corey Clement and his bizarre experience with the same injury. Clement wound up having his double sports hernia surgery in Germany.
Pretty ironic, huh? "Very interesting," Gasser agreed.
•  •  •  •
Competitive to the end, Gasser played in the last two games of the season in Braunschweig.
"I was doing whatever I could to play with it but it was obviously very painful," he said. "I was very limited, especially since I hadn't really practiced. I think I played four minutes in one game and 10 minutes in the other. I just wanted to show that I was healthy — about 70 percent healthy."
Gasser was on a one-year contract. He would consider going back to Germany. "I liked it a lot," he said. "For an American basketball player overseas, it's one of the safest countries and the team's organizations are very structured. It's a different culture but pretty much everyone speaks English."
His agent is looking for a landing spot in Europe. But first things first.
"I've got to get healthy first-off and back in shape," he said. "Then, we'll kind of figure out what I'll be doing next year. Teams know me from college and playing a little bit this year, so your name is out there. It's just a matter of finding a team with a good fit and a decent opportunity.
"It's hard to put a timetable on this type of injury. We're definitely going to take it slow because we have all summer — there's nothing to rush back for. I'm hoping after six weeks, we can amp it up. And, hopefully, by the end of the summer, I'll be 100 percent and in great shape and ready to go."
Gasser, the ultimate competitor, has not given up on his dream of playing in the NBA.
"Watching the playoff games on TV, you realize how many of these guys you've actually played against,'' he said. "Obviously, I don't have the huge size or the crazy athleticism or anything like that. So it's an uphill battle. But I feel that I can prove myself and that's still the ultimate goal."
This latest physical setback was another reality check.
"Definitely, you can't play basketball forever," he said. "I've talked to Ben Brust a lot. He played one year (in Lithuania) and got into the real world. As of now, I'm still young. I want to keep giving this basketball thing a go. You can only play for so long — so you might as well keep it going while you can."
