Sejr Deans was a rising star in Tasmanian basketball, playing at the highest levels in Australia and chasing his dreams in US college basketball. But last year, the 22-year-old suffered a heart attack. He’s now overcome the near-death experience to share his love of the game with Tasmania’s next generation.
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00:00Basketball is life for Sire Deans.
00:12I love basketball.
00:13I think in that time of my life, basketball was a major part of my identity.
00:22The Launceston-born player has represented his state and country and was the first signing
00:27to the Tasmanian Jackjumpers NBL team as a development player.
00:31Before playing a game, he was off to Florida to play college basketball in 2022.
00:36It's sort of been like a long-time dream of mine to play college basketball, so I guess
00:42I was really excited to leave and go over there.
00:46He was very tunnel-visioned, I guess, with his passion with it, and that was his plan
00:54A, and he only had a plan A.
00:57That dream was cut short going into his second year.
01:00I was having a really good summer, you know, probably my peak form of basketball that I'd
01:07ever been in by a long shot, but unfortunately while I was playing pick-up, I suffered a
01:15cardiac arrest, you know, which I was very lucky to survive.
01:22The player had no pulse for four minutes and was in a coma for 24 hours.
01:27I talked to the nurse, and she said that we had to get there straight away, and he had
01:37a lot of swelling on his brain, and yeah, it was scary.
01:45After months of treatment, he returned to Tasmania.
01:48I think with everything that I've learned through this process is, you know, that basketball
01:54isn't my identity, and there's so many other things that I enjoy about my life.
02:00While his basketball dream is in recovery, Sire is using the opportunity to help others
02:05pursue theirs, running basketball clinics for young Tasmanians.
02:09For me, just being able to give back and, you know, provide coaching and some guidance
02:16for some younger players is good.
02:19For Sire, the door isn't completely shut on professional basketball.
02:23He's signed to a team in Denmark for the upcoming season.
02:27I still have ambitions of, you know, getting back into the NBL and playing in the NBL.
02:32Bouncing back from adversity.