For Harvard’s Bassey, Service Comes Before Steals

­The value of a basketball player is often quantified through stats, metrics that evaluate in-game performance. However, as sophomore Justin Bassey has demonstrated throughout his basketball career, valuable contributions can come not only on the court, but also off it.

Before coming to Harvard and emerging as the men’s basketball’s top perimeter defender as a freshman, Bassey immersed himself in a variety of service work at his high school, leaving a legacy through surface projects in his hometown, and gaining a lot in the process.

The Denver, Colo., native went to high school at Colorado Academy, a prestigious private school in nearby Lakewood.

In his time there, Bassey was a four-year letterwinner and captained the team during his junior and senior seasons. He finished his career as Colorado Academy’s all-time scoring leader—accumulating 2,159 points—and he was twice named to Colorado’s all-state team.

Bassey said that his initial exposure to the sentiment of service work developed when his high school coach asked his players to help out at a Unified basketball tournament, a tournament affiliated with the Special Olympics for those with disabilities.

“That was something that was super cool growing up, being able to ref and run the scoreboard and understanding how to set it up, what students are going to need who are going to participate in it, what kind of accommodations we would have to make, like reserving gym time,” Bassey said.

“Doing that from an early age always kind of emphasized the relationship between basketball and community building.”

The connective power of sports was also made evident to Bassey when he competed on a travel basketball team with players that came from families with a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds.

He noted how this experience put his place of privilege into perspective after he saw this disparity in opportunity.

“It’s crazy despite us coming from what couldn’t be more different backgrounds, here’s something that ties us together through playing basketball,” Bassey said.

“After seeing that, I really wanted to find a way. Is there something that can bridge the gap between our two lifestyles but also do so in a meaningful way that will actually make an impact?”

For his high school coach Steve Hyatt, Bassey was an extremely vocal player with an impressive basketball IQ.

Moreover, the budding basketball star had an “impeccable” work ethic and was “not afraid to put the time and energy into something he loves, into his passion.”

“He always keeps everything in a positive manner,” Hyatt said. “He’s a happy go-lucky. He likes to joke around, he likes to have fun, that kind of thing. He’s not an introvert. He’s a bright kid, but he’s not an introvert. He’s very outgoing. He’s very talkative, and I think he adds a lot to practice, to the team just because of who he is, his personality.”

Before coming to Colorado Academy, Hyatt taught special education at nearby Bear Creek High School and coached basketball for 28 years. He said at the Unified basketball games, Bassey would take the initiative and fully immerse himself in the logistics of the event.

“He doesn’t sit there and [wait to be told to do something],” Hyatt said. “He just sits down and says, ‘I’ll do the clock.’ I don’t even need to ask him, he just does it. Then there’s a microphone there, and he’ll be like, ‘I’ll do the announcing.’ That’s just who he is.”

Bassey’s assertiveness is part of his larger affinity to finishing the job.

For Hyatt, Bassey’s initiative started at an even younger age when Bassey was good friends with Hyatt’s son, Christian. Coach Hyatt said that Bassey’s loyalty is one of his strongest personality traits.

“I remember he wanted to do something with my son, and my son was like ‘No, I have to help my dad paint,’” Hyatt said. “An hour later, he shows up. I go, ‘What are you doing here?’ he goes, ‘I’m here to help you paint.’ He was like nine or 10, so I gave him a paint brush and I gave my son a paint brush. I said, ‘You guys paint the shed.’ They got 90 percent more paint on them than on the shed, but that’s the type of kid he is. There’s a need, he’ll show up and do it.”

For his senior project at Colorado Academy, Bassey set up a charity basketball tournament that pitted the different extracurricular clubs at the high school against each other to vie for a donation to a charity of their choosing.

“I have always seen sports as something that’s been at the forefront of society in terms of progressiveness,” Bassey said.

“I think my parents really instilled that sports are more than a means of making friends. My dad always told me there’s something about sports that brings people together in a fashion that’s not seen in a lot of places.”

Bassey also worked with Project Greer Street, an academic enrichment program for African-American males at East High School, an inner-city high school in Denver.

According to Project Greer Street founder Ron Sally, the program aims to propel students from East High to compete academically at the top colleges and universities across the country.

“One of the things that we [my wife and I] were convinced of is that we wanted to be able to share with the students and their families a lot of the great lessons that we had learned and wisdom that we had acquired over the years as it relates to having success in high school academically,” Sally said.

Sally said that he has tried to give his student “domestic intel” by bringing in a variety of speakers. These speakers have given tutorials on everything from about taking advantage of academic resources to interacting with the police.

Ultimately, the program strives to elevate students’ expectations and ambitions, while giving them tools to succeed in the outside world.

“It’s all part of our view of it as very holistic,” Sally said. “It takes a village to raise a successful person, and we’re honored to be part of the village of the kids that we work with.”

Sally met Bassey when his nephew played on the same club basketball team as the now-college sophomore. From the start, Sally recognized Bassey’s strong character.

“He was polished as far as presenting himself. Even before he got to high school, he was articulate,” Sally said. “He clearly had an active mind and thinking, you could tell that when you were conversing with him. And he was very ambitious, and I’ve known that ever since. That’s continued, and he’s continued to evolve in all of those characteristics and has become even more impressive as he’s continued along his journey.”

Sally brought in Bassey as a speaker after Bassey got admitted to Harvard. Like Hyatt, Sally recognized Bassey’s unbridled enthusiasm to help out. Sally said that college-bound student-athlete brought “impressive and authentic” wisdom.

“The kids were able to see somebody that they looked at and said, ‘He’s only one or two years beyond where I am,’” Sally said.

“He’s also local, which was helpful. He wasn’t coming in from New York City or something, but here’s someone from Colorado.”

Bassey said by interacting with students at Project Greer Street, he was able to expose them to opportunities beyond athletics and introduce a more complete life path.

Bassey also spent a summer interning with Sally at Project Greer Street to gather information about enriching summer programming and sharing that information with some of the program’s participants.

He encouraged one student to apply to a computer programming program at Stanford.

“A lot of the students, at least [that] I talked with and that I interacted with through Project Greer Street were people who saw sports as their only means of escape, their only means to get away from their parent/family situation, their only means to get to college, their only means to pay for an opportunity outside their local neighborhood,” Bassey said.

“As a result, those kids were, not narrow minded, but they had a very narrow scope, and they didn’t really know of the opportunities that existed outside of sports and athletics.”

Bassey said that he strove to break stereotypes and to serve as a role model for the students in Project Greer Street. This means widening their views of the world, conversation by conversation.

“I think it’s humbling,” Bassey said. “I’ve had such amazing people in my life who’ve almost fallen into my lap. I just happen to know them, to run into them and build a relationship there. I’ve been fortunate in that regard. To be on the flip side of things and be the person who shows up out of nowhere and is like, ‘hey, let me help me, let me be a resource for you to use, and a tool,’ is humbling.”

Conversely, Sally noted the great influence Bassey has had on his students.

“He is very down to earth, very grounded, and personifies class across the board,” Sally said. “So, I would say that’s what stood out.”

Throughout his experiences, from volunteering at the Unified basketball tournament to setting up his own charity basketball tournament to working at Project Greer Street, Bassey’s service work has imparted him with a sense of appreciation for his family, for his school, and for the opportunities given to him.

This compassion is something that Bassey continues to hold on to, even now at Harvard as he participates in a competitive Division 1 collegiate basketball program.

“I think it’s made me a better person overall,” Bassey said.

“I doubt that they’ve understood the influence they’ve had on me, and I think it gets skewed a lot that the person who’s reaching out or giving the talk has all the knowledge to impart and doesn’t gain anything back, and I think I’ve probably got more out of them than possibly I’ve helped them with.”