At the very least, each had his highlight reel moment that made waves on social media.
On July 15, in an NBA Summer League game against the Suns, Nate Sestina, playing for the Sacramento Kings, drove hard from the top of the key, crossing over one defender and splitting two others before finishing a nifty reverse layup for the bucket.
That 17-second clip is currently pushing 1,000 views on YouTube.
Three nights earlier, in a contest against the Hawks, Jalen Adaway, as a member of the Miami Heat, displayed to the world what St. Bonaventure basketball fans had seen time and again over the last two years. The former Bona standout, while on a fastbreak, leapt high into the air, cradled a lob pass with only his right hand and somehow guided it in for an alley-oop finish over a defender.
That 14-second clip, posted by the official NBA Twitter account with the caption “Jalen Adaway found a way to put this alley down” drew nearly 32,000 views.
AND AT most, Sestina, the local success story, and Adaway, who starred for the local collegiate power, seized the chance to prove themselves at the highest level.
Those two highlighted the list of players with area ties who played in the NBA’s summer circuit last month in Las Vegas.
Neither necessarily starred; Sestina appeared in all five games for the Kings (with 1 start), averaging four points, three rebounds and one assist in 15 minutes per contest. Adaway played in four of five games, making two starts and averaging four points, two rebounds and three assists in 13 minutes a night. But both issued a reminder: They’re good enough to be beckoned by the best basketball league in the world, both the subjects of remarkable rises on the sport’s landscape: Sestina from his backyard in Emporium, Pa., to blue blood Kentucky to the purple ‘SAC’ uniforms of the Kings, Adaway from the Mid-American Conference, to under-the-radar Bona addition, to the burgundy of the Heat.
FOR SESTINA, this was the continuation of an already impressive pro career.
After completing his collegiate play at Kentucky, the 2015 Big 30 Player of Year logged 15 games in the NBA G-League with the Long Island Nets (Brooklyn), averaging eight points and three rebounds before heading overseas.
That year (2020-21), Sestina helped the Hapoel Holon Basketball Club in Israel to its first ever international title, which came in the Balkan International Basketball League. Hapoel Holon BC went 11-0 in those contests, defeating Akademik Plovdiv, 91-75, in the championship contest.
Sestina appeared in nine of those games, averaging 11 points and three rebounds.
That summer, the former Cameron County star made his NBA Summer League debut (the circuit was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic), suiting up for the Utah Jazz. He parlayed that into a deal with Merkezefendi Belediyesi Basket, of the Turkish Super League, where he fared well in his first full pro season, averaging 10 points (sixth-best on his team) and four rebounds while shooting 47 percent from the field and 82 percent at the line in 27 minutes per night.
His season-high was 21 points in a loss to Tofas on Dec. 1.
BEFORE embarking upon Year 2 in the NBA Summer League, Sestina, who also played in the smaller California Classic NBA summer division last month (July 2-5, with just four teams involved), already firmed up his plans for the 2022-23 campaign … barring, of course, a call to an NBA camp.
The 6-foot-9 forward, who both played in the NCAA Tournament in Buffalo and led his first college team, Bucknell, past Bona in the Reilly Center in November 2018, has signed with Turk Telekom BC, also of the Turkish Summer League, according to 247sports.com. He’s one of five Americans on the roster, alongside Octavius Ellis (Cincinnati), Aubrey Dawkins (Central Florida), JuJuan Johnson (Purdue) and former Rhode Island star and familiar face, Jared Terrell.
For Sestina, at 25 years old, this figures to only be the beginning of what promises to be a long (if he so chooses and remains healthy) and lucrative pro career.
And for Adaway, it’s more literally just that: the beginning.
After earning First Team Atlantic 10 all-conference honors in March, Adaway announced his intent to turn pro, signed with an agent and worked out for a handful of NBA teams before going undrafted and signing a summer league deal with the Heat. The 6-foot-5 guard/forward had his moments in those four Vegas contests, demonstrating the kind of high-level athleticism, strong instincts and high IQ that made him a tremendous A-10 player and continue to intrigue NBA executives.
And if he doesn’t earn a call to an NBA training camp, there’s no doubt that Adaway, like Sestina — if not a G-League offer — will have plenty of opportunities (and money) awaiting him overseas.
(J.P. Butler, Bradford Publishing Company group sports editor, can be reached at jbutler@oleantimesherald.com)
