Pt. 1 - Jevohn Shepherd: From the Court to the Front Office

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 Michigan 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 general 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.

Read Part 2 here.