In the months following his graduation from Hamilton College in Kirkland, New York, all Hank Morgan wanted was a chance to play professional basketball.
After a four-year Division III career in which he averaged 17 points across 94 games, won a NESCAC title as a sophomore and earned conference player of the year honors as a senior, Morgan’s college career ended March 7 with a first-round NCAA Tournament loss.
Eight months later, he became the G League’s only player from a Division III background currently
on a roster, starting out with the Salt Lake City Stars and later joining the Maine Celtics, who have found the sharpshooting guard to be a valuable piece to their run into the postseason.
The journey to the G League has been a whirlwind for the 23-year-old rookie, who earned a shot in Salt Lake City by impressing at an open tryout in October.
In fact, Hank admits that a little bit of luck had to roll in his favor to get to this point in his career. The goal was simple, even if the path getting to it wasn’t.
“I just wanted to say that I play basketball professionally,” Morgan told CelticsBlog.
Division III basketball is not the first place you’d look to find NBA, or G League, talent, yet Morgan says his four years under Hamilton head coach Adam Stockwell prepared him to be a pro, even if he didn’t realize it at the time.
“I think it’s well-known within the D3 world that he’s one of the best coaches in the country,” Morgan said of Stockwell. “Just his attention to detail, he points out everything.
“It’s not like he’s just a D3 coach. He’s a basketball coach. That knowledge translates to any level.”
Stockwell saw Morgan as a player that was always getting better. As he added strength, he also added a scoring package that Stockwell described as “old man moves.” He could always punish teams with his shooting range, but at 6’5” and 200 pounds, Morgan was also skillful in the mid-range, creating advantages through post-up creation and a consistent scoring touch from 15 feet out.
“Hank was very intentional with his workouts as far as really being thoughtful about what he wanted to get better at and how it was going to help his game,” Stockwell said.
In the time between graduating from college and getting his G League shot, even before he could weigh the professional possibilities out there, Morgan had to first find an agent to represent him.
To attract the attention of prospective agents, Hank started a YouTube channel, making his own film cut-ups and posting full Hamilton games that showcased his skillset as a shotmaker. The way in which he’d ultimately find his agent wouldn’t actually come from those highlights, but instead from a serendipitous chance-meeting two years ago.
During a workout with a highly-recruited high school talent, Morgan impressed a spectating George Langberg, the CEO and founder of GSL Sports Group. When Hank reached out after college for advice on finding an agent, Langberg instead offered to represent Morgan himself. Langberg’s representation roster includes multiple G League players, including Maine’s own Hayden Gray and rookie Amari Williams.
“He takes pride in just recognizing under-the-radar talent, so I was just lucky enough for him to take some interest in me and help me out in some way,” Morgan said of Langberg.
Through Langberg’s connections, Morgan got a single pre-draft workout, ironically enough with the Celtics, who grouped him with players like future teammate Max Shulga, promising Golden State rookie Will Richard and Arkansas standout Johnell Davis to participate in 3-on-3 scrimmages.
“They were my only one. My agent was trying to get a couple others, and I think there was some genuine curiosity, but nobody was interested enough for a pre-draft except for Boston,” said Morgan. “I wasn’t putting any pressure on myself. I got to play 3-on-3 with a bunch of high major guys, something that I had never really experienced, and it’s in front of an NBA front office. I tried to take all that pressure off and just relax and have fun.”
That workout didn’t lead to a Summer League invite, but it did put a face to the name for the Celtics, who he would hear from again later in the year.
Along with that workout, Morgan spent the summer competing in The Basketball Tournament, an open-invitation event with a cash prize of $1 million. Earning a roster spot with We Are D3, a team consisting entirely of Division III athletes, Morgan and his D3 teammates became a tournament darling, making it to the semifinals by upsetting Boeheim’s Army and Stars of Storrs, teams which are composed of Syracuse and UConn alumni.
By October, Morgan thought he had a decision made, but it wasn’t with the G League. Interest out of Canada’s Basketball Super League with the Sudbury Five felt like a logical first move for Morgan, who saw an opportunity for immediate minutes and a chance to add some tape to his resume.
But fate finds a way of changing things.
The BSL ultimately had to push back its start to the season, with problems arising like the opting out of the decorated London Lightning franchise along with the expansion Saginaw Soul delaying their debut by a year.
Just like that, a window of opportunity opened when Salt Lake City hosted an open tryout, something he’d likely have missed out on if he took a spot with Sudbury. If not for the BSL’s schedule change, Morgan believes he’d be playing in Canada today.
Morgan crushed it in that tryout, later getting an invite to the team’s training camp, where they’d ultimately bring him along for an early-season ride that included a Winter Showcase championship behind Mo Bamba and Oscar Tshiebwe.
Morgan played 15 games with the Stars, who later waived him in search of a more assertive scoring threat.
He spent two weeks at home, disappointed yet understanding of the end result. The lessons learned held a significant purpose to Morgan though, who aimed to take more control over the next opportunity that would come his way.
“I knew why they waived me, and I promised myself I would change my mindset and be way more aggressive with the next opportunity that I got,” Morgan said. “I would defer to (my teammates) without being a threat myself, and that was an issue for the team. I think I was just a little too passive.”
On the day his former Stars teammate John Tonje was announced as part of the trade that’d send Chris Boucher to Utah, Morgan got an unrelated call from the same source in Maine. The Celtics, in desperate need of bodies with injuries to multiple guys, offered Morgan a spot, though one they’d acknowledge was temporary.
“They had told me that they wouldn’t be keeping me long,” Morgan said. “It was just until their players got healthy, so I was just making the most of what I could with the opportunity.”
In a short amount of time, the now-aggressive Morgan made it hard for Maine to keep to its word on the initial short-term plan.
What was once billed as temporary soon became permanent, and in 16 games, Morgan is averaging 8.5 points and 3 rebounds, while knocking down shots at an impressive 49% clip from the field and 44% from three.
It was Morgan’s second game with Maine where he found his confidence with his new team, knocking down 4-of-6 3-pointers for 16 points against the Iowa Wolves, and in his 11th game as a Celtic, he had his most rewarding moment as a pro, scoring 22 points and shooting 6-of-7 from beyond the arc against the Osceola Magic.
On that day before the Magic game, Hank had few expectations of a major role in the rotation. So it goes with the constant comings and goings of two-way players splitting G League and NBA duties.
“I just remember thinking, I might not play that much today,” he admitted.
“The weird thing about the G League is there’s so much change. There are players flying in and out on game day, hours before the game, and all of a sudden you go from having 20 minutes of the game to zero, or zero to 20. You just have to be prepared for anything.”
In a 30-minute appearance, Morgan’s preparation showed.
Outside of a single miss on nine shot attempts, Morgan only found nylon.
Off the catch, off the dribble, from the outside, from the inside, it simply didn’t matter. Morgan’s “old man moves” resulted in buckets at every spot on the floor.
The performance quickly caught on after Maine’s X account affectionately called him “No Dip Hank,” introducing a number of fans to an unknown talent whose quick-trigger release made him seem like the latest Celtics project to be built out of the Maine system.
Three days after making his Maine debut, Morgan and his new Celtics teammates traveled to Boston under mysterious pretenses. Word around the team suspected it had something to do with Jayson Tatum, who was rapidly checking off the final boxes of a return plan from his Achilles injury.
They suspected correctly.
The team participated in a full 5-on-5 scrimmage with Tatum, and the D3 standout found himself standing face-to-face with an NBA champion for the first time. Hank remembers hitting one 3-pointer as Tatum flew by for a closeout. He also remembers a few instances where good defense stood little chance of stopping Tatum’s even greater offense. Sometimes, there are things you just can’t stop.
“I had never really played against a player of that caliber,” Morgan said. “It’s pretty cool to be able to say that I played against him.”
It’s been just over a year since his final DIII game, and Morgan is now firmly entrenched in his pro career, just as he hoped. Was playing against an All-NBA forward part of those expectations? It’s unlikely.
But then again, so was the path that got him to Maine.
