Out of the bustle of a summer afternoon in Yorkville, Brady Heslip entered a café on Bay St. and ordered a double-shot cappuccino. He smirked when the barista asked for his name.

“LeBron,” he said. “It’s LeBron.”

Sipping that drink in the sun outside — “Labron” scribbled on the side of his cup — Heslip lounged in a metal chair with his hair neatly parted, wearing a plain white T-shirt and dark shorts. His conversation meandered through a wide vale of topics, touching briefly on the new woman he’d met, his favourite book by Malcolm Gladwell, Toronto’s best bars and the revelatory months he’d spent living in the Balkans.

Not bad for a 25-year-old with a deadly three-point shot.

But then, Heslip maintains there’s more to life than just basketball. He has to. Because his reality as a player might not line up with his dreams. At least, that’s what people have been telling him since he was a “chubby little shooter” at Burlington’s Nelson High School. The Canadian with the hotshot spoke with the Star earlier this month before joining the Minnesota Timberwolves at the NBA’s Summer League for the second year in a row. He left the Wolves last week before the league wrapped up to join Canada’s team at the Pan Am Games.

“Obviously my No. 1 priority is to make the NBA. But if I don’t do it I’m not going to cry about it,” said Heslip, who lit up the NBA’s development league last season playing for the Reno Big Horns, before shipping off to Bosnia to play in the Adriatic League.

After graduating from Baylor University as a high-scoring starter for three years, Heslip went undrafted in 2014. He joined the Minnesota Timberwolves for Summer League and the pre-season, only to get cut two days before the start of the NBA campaign last year.

From there, he cemented his status as a formidable sharpshooter, nailing 20 three-pointers in his first two games in the D League. He averaged 24.5 points per contest in 20 games, before heading overseas to play with KK Igokea. He was the top scorer in the Adriatic League, won a championship and was named player of the year in Bosnia.

But Heslip is yet to be tested in the biggest league in the world, due mainly to concerns about his size and speed. It remains a question whether the talent he’s demonstrated will translate to the NBA.

“I’m a 6-foot-2 combo guard,” Heslip said. “And everyone’s like, ‘Yeah, good luck.’ . . . My whole career I’ve just been proving people wrong.”

The position he’s in, banging at the gates of the NBA fortress, gives him an interesting perspective on which routes one should take to make it to the big show. And with the Raptors unveiling their own development league team in Mississauga, giving a host of new prospects a potential shot at NBA exposure, Heslip’s thoughts might be worth listening to.

For starters, despite his sensational performance with the Big Horns, Heslip isn’t sure he’d like to return to the D League.

“I can’t say that it wasn’t fun, but I wasn’t in love with it,” he said, describing how his team employed a full-court press and an offence-first emphasis that drove up the scores on both sides of the court.

“I just don’t think that’s a realistic way to win games. Everything’s more fun when you’re winning.”

He argued that, for some players, heading to Europe might be a better option, even if it seems more detached from the D League’s proximity to the NBA. The style of play is different in Europe, emphasizing chess-like strategies and a hard-fought, half-court game, he said. That could actually be better for some players’ development.

“It suits me really well because it’s geared toward high IQ players,” Heslip said, describing how he played 35 minutes per game, and was the go-to shooter when the score was tight at the final buzzer.

“I loved my time in Europe.”

Even so, his ultimate aim has never wavered from the NBA. But if he doesn’t get signed, he won’t be heartbroken. He’ll just pack up and hop a flight to Europe again, and he’ll be happy to do it.

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There’s also a financial component here. The D League would only entice him if he was signed by an NBA team, making NBA money. Unsigned D-Leaguers’ salaries reportedly run as low as $13,000, compared to much more lucrative salaries in Europe for the top stars.

“Some people may look at it differently, like it’s NBA or nothing. And I’ve been told that a couple times by different people, but I guess it’s just all a matter of how you look at life,” Heslip said.

“I’m definitely not complaining, but I know my work’s not done. I’m still hungrier than ever.”

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