Jorge Hernandez (Pro Basketball Player)

Jorge Hernandez is a professional basketball player for CORAS DE XALISCO in LIGA LBP.

Originally from Mexico, Hernandez spent several years in the state of Minnesota until his family decided to return to their sparsely populated hometown.

For the next two years, Hernandez and his family struggled to build a financial foundation, the economic opportunities of their local village few and far between.

“For a day’s work, which is twelve hours instead of eight hours, you were paid 100 pesos ($6), so you couldn’t get by,” Hernandez says of the job market in that part of his native country.

Seeking a change, the Hernandez family moved to the popular Mexican locale of Puerto Vallarta to find employment opportunities in tourism.

Fortunately, the shift did result in further earning opportunities, and the 6-7 Hernandez also enrolled in a prep school to refine his basketball game, but soon the off-court challenges overwhelmed him.

“That school was very hard,” Hernandez recalls.  

“It was like the Mexican Harvard, and I’m not the best student, so I didn’t end up graduating from the school.”

Academics may not have been his specialty at the time, but there was no denying the athletic prowess of Hernandez, who didn’t even pick up a basketball until the eighth grade when his friend asked him to sub on his team.

“He told me that their team could use a tall guy,” the gregarious Hernandez chuckles while recounting that day, but during that same game Hernandez’s squad was annihilated by a final score of 60-2.

And no, that margin is not a typo.

“I scored the two though,” Hernandez quips.

The pummeling his team took that day seemed inconsequential, and on the way out of the gym, Hernandez was happy to go back to playing soccer, but before he and his dad reached their car, a gentleman named Orlando Casella intervened.

Hernandez soon found out that Casella was a coach with MARINEROS DE VALLARTA, a pro club with several different levels of teams within the organization.

Hernandez concedes the idea of delving full-time into basketball didn’t initially appeal to him, but at the behest of his father, he accepted Casella’s and the club’s invitation.

“Things just took off from there,” says Hernandez, who after a little fine-tuning began using his brutish strength to dominate the interior against opponents on the hardwood.

Yet, more importantly, as soon as Hernandez achieved a modicum for success, his drive to become the best player he could quickly amplified.

“To the point that I was sleeping with a basketball in my hands,” Hernandez contextualizes.

Like a lot of talented young athletes, Hernandez dreamed that his powerful right-hand dunks and tenacious defense would land him in the NBA, but over time, even though he forcefully snatched rebounds off the glass and sent meek layup attempts into the bleachers, he realized that making it to the world’s preeminent league was unlikely, at best.

From there, Hernandez set his sights on simply playing at the professional level, a far cry from sharing the court with LeBron James, but a commendable achievement, nonetheless.

Then, at the age of twenty-one, Hernandez’s ambitions and dogged determination proved fruitful when he inked a deal with a local pro club.

It’s been six long years since his entrance into professional basketball, a stint that has taught the still-youthful Hernandez many lessons, the most vital being that the game of basketball is as much a test of mental endurance as it is a display of physical competency.

“You don’t need to be the best player on the team in order to be the best player on the team,” Hernandez lists as one of his biggest takeaways from the game.  

“You don’t need to have the best stats either, but you have to find a role that makes you indispensable.”

For Hernandez, his indispensability stems from his ability to set hard screens, be efficient finishing around the rim, and captaining his squad through times of duress.

“I lead by example, and a lot of that is setting the tone with my unselfishness,” Hernandez explains.  

“I like to take good shots that keep my percentages at a healthy rate. If I get 15 points, I want it to be on 65 to 70% shooting, but it’s also not really about the numbers when it comes to scoring because I’m only shooting if I’m in a good position because of the way our offense is flowing.”

Presently, Hernandez is lacing up his Nikes for CORAS DE XALISCO of LIGA LBP, a league in the western region of Mexico.

Hernandez says their new season has just started and will continue until December, at which point Hernandez believes the CORAS will be ready to contend for the league championship.

“This team is very accustomed to making a big playoff run. We’re aiming for nothing short of a championship,” Hernandez proclaims.

Whether the CORAS ultimately end this season with a trophy in their possession is unknown, but for the bilingual and uber-talented Hernandez, he’s already given thought to what his life will look like post-basketball.

“Yes, I want to go out as a champion,” Hernandez says, but he also wants to return to Minnesota in the coming years and become an electrician so that he can establish a stable foundation for himself and his future family.  

“The game of basketball has given me so much, and while winning a title is at the forefront of what I’m currently striving to accomplish, I know one day I’ll have to retire and focus on other things, and so I’ve already made my peace with that and planned accordingly.” QS

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