By Alex Lough

Part 1: A New Chapter

When Jevohn Shepherd decided to hang up his sneakers for good, he knew he wasn’t done with basketball.

For the former University of M ichigan captain and Team Canada alumni, his love of the game and all its intricacies made it obvious that he would remain involved with the sport in some capacity. After calling an end to his 11-year professional career that saw him play all across Europe, he had the opportunity to serve as a basketball analyst for CBC Sports, Sportsnet590 and the Toronto Raptors G-League affiliate, Raptors 905. For Shepherd, it gave him an outlet to pass along the knowledge he had occurred throughout his playing career.

“I’ve always loved it,” Shepherd said. “I think the later part of my playing career I was really focusing and locked in on the evaluation process. Just understanding the tendencies of players and what makes a good player; why some players impact the game more even though they may not appear to be the most skilled. There’s a lot that went into it and it’s just a different aspect of the game that as you mature you start to be in tune with, and that really appealed to me.”

Given his vast experience as a player and years spent studying the game, a move into a front office role only seemed natural. So, when former BlackJacks general manager Dave Smart stepped down from his position, Shepherd was given the opportunity to lead the team. It wouldn’t be easy replacing a local legend in Smart - who has deep ties in both the community and the sport - but it was a challenge he was willing to accept.

While some might see simultaneously serving as an analyst and a gen eral manager as overfilling one’s plate, Shepherd believes otherwise. In fact, he says that the two roles have a lot more in common than people may initially realize.

“(There were) always two things in my mind: I would love to be in broadcasting or a front office position. And here I am doing both,” he said. “People always ask me, ‘How do you find time to do everything?’ And the reality is, they’re one in the same. You’re constantly evaluating players; you’re always evaluating the game. In one, you’re delivering to an audience, and that’s obviously the broadcasting aspect. Front office, you’re delivering for a team, your own team. I enjoy both. The front office thing is something where you still get those competitive juices because your position is evaluated on your wins and losses, and how well the team is developing.”

That being said, as with any new job, there were bound to be some hiccups and surprises along the way. For Shepherd and the BlackJacks as a whole, the 2021 season was one that had more than its fair share of ups and downs. The team would finish with just a 4-10 regular season record, and barely squeaked in to the playoffs as the sixth-seed. On the other hand, they also had a number of breakthrough performances and punched their ticket to Championship Weekend.

As much as he likes to celebrate the success the team had on the court, Shepherd takes just as much pride in what the team was able to accomplish off of it. For him, the intangibles and immeasurables – things like the steps players took in their development – mean just as much, if not more, than wins and losses.

“When you’re looking at wins and losses, 4-10 is obviously not the record we set out for,” Shepherd said. “But when you measure the development of the players, when you measure how the season ended for us, that’s telling as to how we progressed. A number of our guys that didn’t have contracts before are now playing in their winter seasons.

“When you look at how the team came together at the end of the season, you look at the fact that… scratch 4-10, when you’re at championship weekend, the only thing people remember are those teams that were there,” Shepherd continued. “And we were one of them, right? That goes to show you where that team was at that point in the season.

We were one of the four best teams at the end of the season. In fact, the only team to beat Edmonton and gave them their best run in the playoffs. If I’m looking at it, I’m also saying, ‘Man, this team has some really good pieces going forward to build from.’ You have the foundational pieces and that’s the bar that I want to be measured from. Not the 4-10 record from when we were trying to identify ourselves and work through some kinks and understand who we are as a club, who we are in the community and who we are in the front office. I think we got lost in that a little early on in the season.”

Shepherd is quick to point to Alain Louis as an example of what the team is trying to achieve. The Carleton Raven product was not selected by the team in the CEBL U SPORTS Draft. Instead, he was given a spot at training camp with no guarantee of making the final roster. Shepherd said that Louis came in not with a focus on making the team, but rather learning as much as he could in the short time from veteran players like Earl Calloway and Junior Cadougan. The end result was him having one of the most impressive training camps and earning his spot on the roster.

“It's because of his willingness, his humbleness, his eagerness to learn,” Shepherd explained. “He’s never stopped asking questions. He has a level of humility that goes along with his hard work that is actually wild for a guy that is so young. He became one of our leaders, our tougher guys. Young, but still had leadership qualities. I was extremely happy for him because of how he came in. Not (because) of how he performed, but the humility he came into the season with. ‘I just want to come learn. I just want to come be a part of a professional program that I probably wouldn’t have had access to before.’ And lo and behold, it translated into a really good season for him as far as his development.”

The two recently shared a phone call where Louis spoke about how much of difference he’s noticing in his game now that he’s back at Carleton. Shepherd says it’s stories like that which show how truly successful the BlackJacks season was.

“If we’re looking at immeasurables, again, that’s one of the things,” he noted. “4-10 is out the window. But when a player can turn around and say you helped them, that experience helped them, that’s something huge. That’s something you can hang your hat on because it shows development and it shows progression and guys are getting better.”

Those are the kinds of stories Shepherd hopes he’ll be able to tell more of in the years to come. He and the rest of the BlackJacks staff view the personal and professional growth of their players as priority number one. They believe those steps being taken by the members of the team will lay the groundwork for Ottawa winning the CEBL championship; and if more players have experiences similar to Louis’, the BlackJacks see themselves as well on their way to achieving their ultimate goal.

Part 2: The Ups and Downs

Coming into his first year as a general manager, Jevohn Shepherd expected there to be growing pains. He knew that he would be faced with new challenges and placed in unfamiliar situations. He’s not afraid to admit there were early struggles, saying, “it was intimidating at first.” But thanks to some hep from the front office around him and some personal perseverance, Shepherd was able to adapt and overcome.

Shepherd credits a large part of the success he had to his ability to embrace challenges as they come along. He takes pride in learning from both successes and failures and enjoying the journey along the way. The way he sees it, that’s the only way to grow as a person, which he aspires to do every day.

However, as much as he enjoys taking things one day at a time and living in the present, there was one part of the journey that he wishes he could have predicted.

“I wish I knew our whole roster was going to get wiped out,” Shepherd said with a laugh. “That way I would have had some contingency early on.”

Of course, Shepherd is referring to the BlackJacks first round playoff matchup against the Hamilton Honey Badgers. What should have been a time of celebration quickly turned to panic when it was announced that there had been a possible COVID-19 contact tracing back to the team. Due to league health and safety measures, any player that wasn’t fully vaccinated was ruled ineligible to play.

“We got notice that there could potentially be contact tracing, and in my head, I’m thinking, ‘No. This is not going to hit us at the end of the season. It’ll be fine. It’ll work itself out,’” Shepherd said. “Then a day and a half later, we get the news that more than half our roster that isn’t fully vaccinated won’t be eligible to play.”

The news broke just a few days before the BlackJacks were set to travel down to Hamilton for their first-round meeting. Shepherd and the rest of the BlackJacks front office staff had to work fast in order to be able to even field a team. But the man in charge of the whole operation is quick to admit that it took a while for the news to really sink in.

“I was actually in Vegas at Summer League at the time, and I remember looking out the window at the Las Vegas strip, then I remember myself looking at the roof,” Shepherd said with a laugh. “I don’t remember how I got from standing up to laying down, but I just stared at the ceiling for about five or six hours.

Then it clicked like, ‘You’ve got to kick it into gear now.’ And I attribute the players. There’s an abundance of players that want to play in this league. We had a list of players we had looked at early on that we just dipped back into that pool. They were guys that had been reaching out to us throughout the season to see if there were any opportunities. 

“So again, you go back to the drawing board, you look at your analytics, you look up your film, and then you try to fill what you need in that short span of time. Are you going to recreate a completely new roster or are you going to try to fill the holes that you do have? You throw everything at the wall and hope that it sticks. And it stuck! We came out with a victory and I think Chad Posthumus was a great pickup.

“Honestly, you really have to credit the guys for being prepared,” Shepherd said. “I have to credit our whole front office staff because they put in countless hours over those two or three days to put it together; our support staff as well. There are just so many things that go into it, and fortunately it worked out the right way for us.”

It was an experience that, while incredibly stressful - and having come out the other side of it with everyone safe and healthy – Shepherd is grateful for having gone through.



“That week there was a stressful week. It gave me a couple of grey hairs, but I’ll say this: we learned everything we could have in the course of a week. That was almost two seasons in the course of seven days. Not only did I get my rookie season out of the way, but I got my sophomore year just in that week there.”

Even though the BlackJacks would fall in their next game to the eventual champion Edmonton Stingers, Shepherd remains proud of what the team accomplished during the year.

Coming into the season, Shepherd put a lot of emphasis on this BlackJacks team having length, size, and shooting ability. He also looked for intangibles like basketball IQ and maturity. While he admits that he learned more about the CEBL and what styles work best in the league as the year went on, overall, he liked what the team showed in the aspects they were built around. 

Shepherd is hoping that the team will be able to keep their size and shooting ability going forward. He also believes that having continuity in the roster plays a big part in having team success. With the team announcing in August that Shepherd will be back to lead the front office again next season, he’s already started looking ahead to the team he wants to field in 2022.

The CEBL is known for having a high roster turnover rate, but the clubs that have had success have found a way to keep their team together. Under Shepherd’s helm, that’s something the BlackJacks want to emulate.

“If you’re looking at Edmonton, that’s a team that’s had cohesiveness for the last two or three years,” Shepherd said. “All the teams that have had success… Niagara’s had some guys that have returned, same coaching staff, same system implemented. In a league like this where you’re getting guys that could be coming in two or three games into the season or leaving two or three games early at the end of the season, you have to have a foundational unit that has played together that continues to have that cohesiveness, so that when guys are in and out, there’s no drop off. 

“But, if every year you’re changing rosters, you’re changing staff, and then you have those variables of guys coming in and out, it makes it that much tougher for you to continue to have a successful team.”

Whoever is on the team next year – whether they be on the court or behind the bench – will have access to Shepherd’s vast wealth of knowledge as a player and analyst to draw from. However, he does his best not to overstep his boundaries. While he is more than happy to give advice to those who ask, Shepherd prefers not to interject himself into the coaching staff or roster. The way he sees it, everyone on the team has been brought onboard because they are talented at what they do. 

“Everybody is a leader in their own right,” Shepherd said. “Your coaching staff, that’s their role, to coach the team. I’m hands off there. If I’m asked questions, I’ll have some input. I will give some insight from my observations, from what I see. But at the end of the day, as a coach, that’s your role to do as you feel, and you should have full autonym over how you’re going to coach this team. I didn’t go through the process to be a coach, so I shouldn’t be the one stepping on those boundaries to have any input there. 

“As far as the players go, you guys are here for a reason,” he added. “You guys are pros, you’re here because you do at what you do at a high level. I may come in and give some advice from my perspective, my playing days, where I feel like you could be more productive or impact our team a bit more. And that’s more so - not as a GM – but more so the relationship I have with some of these guys. I would have been giving them that advice regardless.

“These guys know what they have to do… At the end of the day, you’re measured by your production on the court. Whether it’s from teams in the CEBL or teams in FIBA, the G-League or the NBA.”

Part 3: The Growth of the Game

As much as he hopes to build a successful franchise in Ottawa, Jevohn Shepherd knows that, ultimately, that’s just a small part of the overall goal. The CEBL is committed to building the game of basketball across Canada. That means it is each franchise’s responsibility to grow the game in their respective communities, and winning the championship is only part of that. Fundamentally, the success of the team and the league can only be measured by the impact they have on Canadian basketball as a whole.

For Shepherd, that just presents another series of challenges that he looks forward to conquering day by day. For his part, he’s just happy to be able to play a part in something he truly believes in, and to have a front row seat for what he expects to see from the league in the upcoming years.

“Expansion, growth, progression, all of the above,” Shepherd said about what fans can expect from the CEBL. “Commissioner Mike Morreale has so many ideas and it’s all to uplift this game, uplift the players, and just continue to build this game in Canada. And I think they’re well on their way with the blueprint that they have set out… There are just so many options and so many variables and the league is just going to continue to grow.

“I’m excited from a selfish standpoint just to be a part of it. Hell, I’m a GM in a professional league! Who would have thought that would have happened a year out of hanging up my shoes and getting all the experiences I’ve been able to get? It’s allowed me to get into some conversations I may not have had before. Just being in those rooms and learning that, I’m excited about it.”

The CEBL is looking to build upon the explosion in popularity basketball has had in Canada in the past decade. The growth of the game in this country has already become apparent at the highest levels. On opening night of the 2020-2021 NBA season, there were a record 17 players from Canada on rosters. While that may not seem like a lot, Canada was the second most represented country behind only the United States. For this season, that number rose to 18 – 22 if you count players on two-way contracts. And that’s not to mention all the work Canadians are doing in the top leagues overseas and in South America. 

While the players are quick to get their rightly deserved credit, Shepherd wants to make sure that the support staff behind the scenes are given their dues as well. The way he sees it, they are just as responsible for the success Canada has had on the court over the past decade.

“I think the coaches don’t get enough credit,” Shepherd said. “They’re a big part of the development of these guys, and the coaches at the grassroots level of the game now are that much more knowledgeable, have that much more understanding of how to get the players to the next level and to the professional level. You have guys and ladies that are former players coming back. Former coaches at elite levels coming back and investing into the community. When I look at it and I look ahead, I have to commend all the coaches and support staff.

“I remember when I was going through it, we had coaches and development coaches that could get you to a certain level, but they had never seen some of the lengths that the players aspired to see. It’s only going to continue to get better because now we have a plethora of guys in the NBA. As they start to retire and come back home and inject their knowledge and what they went through into the community, then you have another wave of talent that’s going to come and that’s going to know more, that’s going to understand more, that’s going to have more access to resources than ever before.”

The CEBL will continue to do its part of growing the game by giving Canadian players and coaches a platform to showcase their talent at the highest level. For Shepherd, that’s part of what makes building out his roster so much fun.

The CEBL is notable in that it runs during the summer, opposite of when most other leagues are operating. As Shepherd learned in his first year, that means the managers are tasked with scouting talent throughout the year, and then crafting a roster that fits not just from a personnel standpoint, but a logistical one as well.

There are a number of pro leagues around the world whose schedule conflicts with the beginning and end of the CEBL s eason. That means Shepherd and the league’s other general managers are tasked with weighing and balancing the pros and cons of adding those players to their roster.

As Shepherd sees it, that’s all the more reason to invest in homegrown talent. With 70% of the roster required to be Canadian, whoever is able to attract the best talent from north of the border is bound to have an advantage over the rest of the league. That’s why he places such an emphasis on scouting and developing Canadian players. And that starts with the connections the CEBL has made at the university level.

“I think you definitely have to keep tabs on the Canadian pool of players, and they’re going to be so much more important as years go on,” Shepherd noted. “I think the U SPORTS players are going to be so important as this league continues to expand, because now that pool of Canadian players you have now that’s been cycling becomes a bit more deluded now that you add two more teams this year. That’s essentially two or three more Canadians off each roster spot this year that are gone to other teams. Your Canadians become that much more important.”

As far as Shepherd is concerned, it’s all part of the what makes being a general manager so much fun. The highs and lows, trials and tribulations, and last-minute roster changes are all part of the job description. It’s a job only a select few are capable of handling, but the BlackJacks are happy the team is in Shepherd’s capable hands. Rest assured, the feeling is mutual.

“All-in-all, it was a great experience, a tremendous experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything.”