The Hapoel forward has taken an unusual road to the EuroCup Finals and he is loving where he is now
Ish Wainright wants to win
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7 Mins read
Ish Wainright wants to win. He came to Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv this summer to win with one of his closest friends. And he is very close to winning a championship for the first time in his career.
While the desire to win is something that every player at the highest levels shares, Wainright's road to the Canary Islands for Game 2 of the BKT EuroCup Finals, is unique to itself.
The versatile forward counts baseball as his favorite sport, gave up for basketball for American football after playing in college and now cherishes every minute of every basketball game he plays. Wainright brings a killer attitude to the court and aspires to coach basketball when his playing days come to an end.
So how did he get here? Some of it was dumb luck. Scheduling kept him to playing just two sports when he reached high school.
"My freshman year in high school I actually tried out for the baseball team," Wainright recalled. "I played football, played basketball. I wanted to do swimming, but everything, it was just so much, I couldn't do everything. So I just picked basketball and football my freshman year."
It turned out to be a great choice as Wainright developed into one of the top high school players in the United States. He ultimately decided to play college basketball at Baylor University and met one of his current teammates, Johnathan Motley, the moment he first arrived at the school.
"We pulled up at the same time on campus, our freshman year," Wainright said. "We pulled up literally 10 seconds [apart]. I pulled up first and then he pulled up in a parking spot right next to me. And it was like a brotherhood from day one."
That brotherhood would play a key role in Wainright's arrival in Tel Aviv. But their respective careers would take many twists and turns before then.
Wainright played four seasons of Basketball at Baylor and as it ended, the idea of playing football came up. While he was kicking the idea around, the Baylor football head coach, Matt Rhule, contacted Wainright on social media.
"He was like, 'hey man, you'll be a great tight end for me,'" Wainright said. "'You could possibly make it to the NFL'… I laughed at that message."
Rhule convinced him to sit down with him to talk it over. And eventually to give football a try. Wainright showed promise and scored a pair of touchdowns for Baylor. He then went through the scouting process and wound up going to preseason training with the NFL's Buffalo Bills, but in the end he decided "it wasn't for me."
Fortunately, he had basketball to fall back on. But before spending parts of three seasons in the NBA and competing for EuroCup glory with Hapoel, Wainright had to get his basketball groove back. And the first step in that process was playing in the German second division with Nuremberg.
It was a struggle at first as Wainright was still at his football weight and getting used to the differences between American and European basketball.
"I think I got called for traveling like four times in each game at one point," he exclaimed. "But it wasn't a bad transition. It wasn't a tough transition because I learned how to adapt at a young age when it came to certain things. And we took that team to the finals."
From Nuremberg to Vechta, Germany; to Strasbourg, France; to Phoenix and Portland, USA; Wainright built a reputation as a team-first, defensive-minded player with a good outside shot. As great a teammate as he was in the locker room, he was as tough as they came on the court.
"My dad was the exact same way. He was a killer on the court, but once he got off the court, it was just all love, no hate. All love, happiness, and just joy, just being around. He told me: 'You go on that court, everything goes out the window, friendships, family. No. You need to kill whoever's in front of you.'"
Wainright even shared an anecdote for the EuroCup semifinals.
"I don't know if people knew, but me and [Valencia Basket's] Semi Ojeleye have been playing against each other since we were in the fourth grade. Since we were little kids… So, it's all fun and games off the court, but on that court, it's a different mindset. You're trying to take something that I have. You have something that I have. I'm trying to take what you have. It's that type of mindset.
"But when we got off the court, oh, 'what's up, bro? How you been? Life been good? Mom's all right? I'm proud of you.' But once that ball is up in the air, we're gonna have fun, but I'm going to try to kill you while I'm having fun. I'm enjoying making you miserable."
While he was telling stories, Wainright shared how the call to Motley went when he decided to sign for Hapoel over the summer. Wainright had several offers on the table and then…
"They told me that Motley was going to go to Hapoel Tel Aviv. And I said, oh. Okay, I called Motley. I asked Motley two questions. I said, you ready to win? He's like, 'what you mean?'
"I said, you ready to win, bro? Like, let's win. He's like, 'what are you talking about?' I said, all right. Hapoel is making me an offer that I'm highly considering. And I said, are you ready to win?
"And he said, 'you about to sign?' And I said, bro, you trying to win? I'm trying to win. I haven't won anything. I want to win a championship… He was like, 'let's win.'
"And so I sent a message right to my agents, right to Steph [Dedas] and said, yo, Hapoel it is. That was that was the conversation that we had, me and Motley. It was just a couple of questions."
And now Motley and Wainright are one win away from realizing that dream together. It could happen as soon as Friday when Hapoel faces Dreamland Gran Canaria with a 1-0 lead in the best-of- three finals.
"Not a lot of guys are able to say, I am in the EuroCup Finals to make it to EuroLeague, to get a chance to play in EuroLeague. Me and Antonio Blakely, we haven't won. We want to win. This right here is something that is by any means necessary," Wainright said.
"We want to win. Like I told the guys before, I said, I don't care if I shoot one shot a game. I don't care. I want to win… If coach goes with a lineup that I don't play, I don't care. I want to win. Whatever you say, we're going to do, and we're going to win.
"It is a once-in-a-lifetime thing to not just me, but to a lot of guys. It means more for this country, for this team, Hapoel Tel Aviv, because they've never done anything like this. We're making history, and it's a lot more history to be made with this organization. I'm excited, man. I'm blessed to be a part of this, and I'm looking forward to going to Gran Canaria and winning."