EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — While his older brother is in pursuit of an NBA championship with the Indiana Pacers, Ben Hansbrough is just hoping to land on somebody’s roster.
The younger Hansbrough is one of 21 free agents working out this week for the Nets, but he is the only former Big East Player of the Year in the group.
“It’s almost like my second go-round so I’m actually healthy,” the 6-foot-3 shooting guard told SNY.tv Tuesday, hours before his older brother, Tyler, and the Pacers lost to the Miami Heat in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference semifinal.
A year ago, Hansbrough was named Big East Player of the Year after averaging 18.4 points and 3.9 rebounds for Mike Brey’s Fighting Irish.
But he suffered a severely sprained ankle during a workout in Indianapolis and missed the Chicago Pre-Draft Combine. He ended up signing a one-year deal with Bayern Munich in Germany, but was released in December. He later signed with Krka Novo Mesto of Slovenia but left that club in January due to personal reasons.
He described the Germany experience as “culture shock, leaving family and going on your own to a foreign country.”
Hansbrough says he’s healthy now but still must ice down his ankles after workouts.
Hansbrough isn’t the only brother of an NBA player here with the Nets for this three-day camp.
Taylor Griffin, the older brother of Clippers star Blake Griffin, is also in attendance.
Hansbrough shares the same agent, Jeff Schwartz, as Nets free-agent-to-be Deron Williams and says he has upcoming workouts with the San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks over the “next couple weeks.”
“I want to show a little bit of my toughness, a little bit of shooting ability, a little bit of how I can move,” he said. “Just get out there and play my games and find some teams and see what happens.”
