Head first played at the local venue in 2011 when he was just 10 years old. The Heat had come back from a trip to Washington at 3 a.m., but Highsmith was back on the practice court at 10 a.m., shooting for two hours.This book is intended to be a documented history of businesses in Martin County and we encourage all Martin County businesses/professional organizations and nonprofits to participate and provide information and photos, both current and historic. Sancomb dined with Highsmith in Miami earlier this year. “He said, ‘At the end of the day, when we’re on the court, we’re all basketball players,’” Brenda recalled. When he blocked a shot from his boyhood idol, Kevin Durant, his parents assumed he’d be over the moon. His mother, who has converted her co-workers at Northwest Hospital into ardent Heat fans, described him as “a hugger.” But he treats his career as serious business. Highsmith finds time to enjoy his 1-year-old daughter, Hazel, and video game marathons - Johnson said “Madden” is his specialty - with old pals. Highsmith scored 18 points in 23 minutes, drawing praise from ESPN analyst and former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy. during the second half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals on June 1 in Denver.
Heat forward Haywood Highsmith (24) contests a shot by Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. He worked harder and harder and harder.”Īfter Highsmith played the 2020-21 season in Germany, he signed with an Italian team for 2021-22 but withdrew when the 76ers dangled another shot at the NBA. Cool as those weeks were, Highsmith wanted to stick. During that brief stint, he studied the habits and game day intensity of teammate Jimmy Butler, filing away everything he observed. Highsmith earned his first taste of the NBA in 2019, when he signed a two-way deal with the Philadelphia 76ers and averaged 1.8 points over five appearances. Highsmith went undrafted after his bonanza senior season, but his agent, Jerry Dianis, encouraged him to keep his eye on the biggest prize.
“All the hard work was finally paying off.” ‘They like those guys that have the grind’
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“I thought to myself, ‘You could go professional with this,’ and it has always been a dream of mine, so it was nice to think like that,” Highsmith remembered in a 2022 interview with Wheeling’s athletics website. No one said so explicitly, but Sancomb believes it was around this time that Highsmith began to regard an NBA career as a serious possibility. When it was theoretically time to rest, he’d simply turn his jersey inside out and play for the ‘B’ team.
Wheeling had a good team, but no one on the roster had a prayer of stopping Highsmith in practice. “I remember from his sophomore year to his junior year, he made a big jump and I thought, ‘How much better can he really get?’ And then his senior year, I was like, ‘Oh my!’” “Some guys don’t get that much better in college,” he said. Though Highsmith made a leap forward every season in college, Sancomb was blown away when he showed up for preseason workouts his senior year. As his body filled out and his jumpshots ripped the net more frequently, his confidence ballooned. He reached out to his father’s old college friend, Warren Doles, to help him bulk up with a summer workout program. He prepared for each game with an hourlong shooting workout that left him drenched in sweat. Highsmith committed to Sancomb and Wheeling just before the start of the fall semester in 2014, determined to add that finish to his game.Įvery evening after practice, he’d return to the gym for extra shooting. … But I think at the Division I level, they’re probably looking for a more finished project.” Always made the extra pass, always communicating. “First time I ever saw him, I was like, ‘This is a no-brainer,’” Sancomb recalled. Hubbard ultimately reached out to Sancomb, whom he’d played for in college, and Sancomb watched Highsmith in an AAU tournament in Atlantic City after his senior season at Curley. even tried pitching his alma mater, Fairmont State, where he had been a star player, to no avail.
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