Former Rainbow Warrior Jankovic stays positive despite injuries

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. >> As he adjusts to professional basketball, the Big West Conference’s player of the year last season relies on his past to confront his present.

Stefan Jankovic, who led Hawaii to the second round of last year’s NCAA Tournament, finds his progress interrupted by injuries as a member of the Sioux Falls (S.D.) Skyforce, the Miami Heat’s affiliate in the NBA’s Development League.

Through 10 starts and 20 games with the Skyforce, Jankovic is averaging 6.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and 0.9 blocks in 17.6 minutes. Last season, he averaged 15.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.3 blocks while starting 33 of 34 games for the Rainbow Warriors, who shared the Big West’s regular-season championship with UC Irvine before earning an NCAA berth by winning the conference tournament.

The 6-foot-11 Jankovic joined the Heat as a free agent in June while playing for the club’s summer-league team and signed a contract in July. However, a torn ankle ligament limited Jankovic to just one preseason game. Miami sent the 23-year-old to Sioux Falls, where an injured hand kept him out of action for a month.

“We still don’t know what he really can do,” Skyforce coach Nevada Smith said. “We’re trying to learn every day what he can do for us and what he can be. Injuries have really taken their toll on him in the past nine months. He was hurt all summer. He was hurt all preseason and only practiced a couple of times, and then he got hurt with us.”

Keep on trucking

Yet Jankovic remains undaunted.

“I knew I was going into a man’s game,” he said. “I knew it was going to be a grind. Obviously, I didn’t expect to get injured. I’ve been injured more than I’ve trained this season. But there’s stuff you can’t control in the sports world. You’ve just got to be resilient, keep on trucking and keep the faith. If you want to do this for a living, you’ve really got to love the sport. You’ve got to push through ups and downs.”

That attitude defines Jankovic’s life.

His parents moved from Sarajevo to Belgrade in 1992 during Yugoslavia’s violent disintegration. One year later, Stefan was born. Two years later, the toddler watched a bomb fall 100 yards from his home. Two years after that, the family moved to Canada.

While his father worked in construction, delivered pizza and became a long-haul truck driver, Stefan cared for his younger brother Andreas — now a 6-9 center at Kalaheo — and learned to play basketball on a court across the street from his parents’ apartment.

“Sports has always been my thing to get away,” Jankovic told the Columbia Missourian in 2013, when he was a freshman at Missouri.

Dreams of the big league

But with playing time scarce, Jankovic transferred to UH, where former coach Gib Arnold encouraged the young immigrant’s pro dreams.

“I would remember him talking about the pro life,” Jankovic said about Arnold, who coached the NBA’s DeMar DeRozan, Nick Young and Taj Gibson as collegians. “He would always talk about that. Gib had a vision of me playing in the NBA, like I did. That’s why he brought me over to Hawaii.”

When NCAA sanctions disqualified UH from postseason play this year, a decision the university is appealing, Jankovic made another move.

“Honestly, I was thinking about going pro, but the sanctions … ,” he said without further elaboration. “Would I have loved to be in Hawaii another year? Sure, but I wasn’t going to transfer anywhere else. I got calls from everywhere and I just wasn’t interested. I wanted to test myself on the pro level and get ready.”

Adjusting to the pros means continually refining individual skill. Before a recent game against the Los Angeles D-Fenders, Jankovic worked on his post moves with Sioux Falls assistant coach Kasib Powell.

“He’s getting there,” Smith said. “He’s used to being more of a pick-and-pop guy who played on the perimeter. We’re asking him to mix it up with some bigs and play the (power forward) a little bit, some things with more physicality than he was used to. It all comes with game play and minutes, and he just hasn’t been able to be out there that much.”

Jankovic must evolve and improve while dealing with constant, grueling travel.

“With Hawaii, we’d travel two, three days before a game to L.A.,” Jankovic said. “We were on the road for three weeks for the NCAA Tournament. But the amount of games is different. I think we’ve already played almost double the amount of games, so far. I know that we’ve played more than the amount of games I played with Hawaii in a season.”

When he’s not traveling, Jankovic calls South Dakota home.

“It’s cold,” he said. “It’s a good place for what I want to do. For what I’m doing with basketball, you can’t beat it. We have full gym access and nothing to do other than be in the gym.”

When he’s not in the gym, Jankovic concentrates on improving his mind.

“I’ve done a lot of reading, a lot of motivational stuff but, in general, you name it,” he said. “Cooking books. I mean, why not? I’m in South Dakota, so I’ve got to get a hobby.”

Self-improvement

In the process, Jankovic’s personality is starting to unfold. The former UH standout appears friendlier and more relaxed during a pregame interview.

“I try to cut that out,” he said about complaining. “There’s something about just staying positive. It’s weird. Last year, you wouldn’t have heard this from me.”

As he adjusts to professional basketball, Jankovic cherishes his time in Hawaii and the friendships he made.

“Most of the guys that I have a relationship with for the two, three years that I’ve been there, we’re close,” he said. “I’m always going to have that. You’ve got to be around me more than six months to know me. I don’t have a big circle. That’s how I am.

“I love Hawaii. As soon as the season’s done, I’m going to be there. That’s my second home.”