Keifer Sykes won’t be the only UW-Green Bay alum playing in the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League this month.

Kam Hankerson will play with Brooklyn Nets this summer after appearing in 44 games for their G League affiliate – the Long Island Nets – last season. He averaged 6.9 points and 2.1 rebounds while playing 16.3 minutes per game last season, his first in the G League after spending the previous two seasons playing professionally in the German second division and in Portugal.

He scored a career high 29 points on November 21^st against the Raptors affiliate, one of his 15 games where he scored in double figures.

The 2020 UWGB graduate is not necessarily known for his scoring – though he can score in bunches as we saw back in March of 2018 when the Michigan native dropped a career high 36 points in a game against Detroit Mercy. 

But Hankerson was always a consistent contributor throughout his career with the Phoenix, appearing in 128 games – tied for 5^th most in the program’s history – making 58 starts while also grabbing rebounds, forcing steals, and facilitating Linc Darner’s fast paced offense with ball handling and assists.

Those do-it-all traits along with his good size for a ball-handler at 6’5” could help him when it comes time for the Nets to make roster decisions later this summer.  NBA teams have an additional two-way spot this season (three total now) for players to be on their roster as well as get minutes at their G League affiliate, which could possibly help him earn a spot.

Hankerson has his work cut out for him to make an NBA roster, but it would not be unprecedented.  His meteoric rise so far is following a similar path to another UWGB alum, Alfonzo McKinnie, who played several years overseas before several solid seasons in the G League and Summer League ultimately helped him earn NBA regular season and post season playing time.

The Nets summer league gets underway in Las Vegas on Friday night at 7:30 PM when they take on the Cleveland Cavaliers on NBA TV.  They’ll face the New York Knicks a day later at 4:30 PM on Saturday on NBA TV before wrapping up the regular portion of the summer schedule against the Milwaukee Bucks (Tuesday, 5:00 PM, ESPNU) and Toronto Raptors (Thursday, 4:00 PM, ESPN2). The summer league playoffs schedule will be announced at a later date.

It is also a nice feather in the cap for Green Bay as a program to have multiple players in the NBA Summer League once again, as was the case in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019.

There are only six other Horizon League players playing in the Summer League this season.