Back from Russia, limping with love.
Travis Hansen has spent the past six months in Moscow, playing for one of the top pro basketball clubs in Europe. He's distanced himself from the Atlanta Hawks while enjoying a sweet run to the playoffs for Dynamo Moscow, a shooting guard with his patented jump shot and power baseline drives.
The former Mountain View High, Utah Valley State College and BYU star, packing one of the top 10 contracts in the league, is in the first of a two-year contract following a successful two-year deal in Spain playing for top-rated Tau Ceramica, and he was on top of his game until it happened.
Hansen's season with Dynamo Moscow came to a premature end this season three weeks ago in the first quarter of a Russian League game. That's when Hansen was guarding an opponent, falling back to defend the post — he felt his left calf muscle explode as if shot by a rifle. He tore his Achilles' tendon.
"I fell like a rock. I went down," Hansen said.
Within hours, Hansen was on his way back to Provo where he underwent surgery at 5 a.m. the next day.
It wasn't that the Russian doctors couldn't handle it. "They are all great," Hansen said. But he was done, would have been headed for home anyway and decided to have surgery in Utah.
Hansen will turn 29 on Tax Day in April. He is in his prime. "If anyone can come back from this injury, it would be Travis," said BYU head basketball trainer Robert Ramos, who has aided in rehab efforts in Provo.
"The prognosis is great," Hansen said. "I plan on making it back in six months. I don't have to be back until the end of September. They did a great job; usually, when they do this surgery, the tendon ends up being an inch longer, but they threaded it back like a horse tail, overlapped it to keep it tight, braided it. I'll be in a boot for four more weeks and start walking by April. I've been rehabbing it every day. I'll be fine."
That's typical Hansen, optimistic as can be, positive as one side of a battery terminal. One of his greatest attributes over the years is believing he can do anything.
I first met Hansen when he was 13 on a raft trip down the Colorado River with a group of Orem fathers, trying to bond with their sons down Cataract Canyon. Travis could have done it without the inflatable rubber raft.
When drafted by Atlanta in 2003, he became only the second BYU basketball player drafted since Shawn Bradley in 1993.
Hansen averaged 14.5 points a game for Dynamo and has become a popular fixture in Moscow, a city he's grown to love. While playing in Spain, his team made it to the final four both years he played there. He was given a chalet and frequent tickets home for his wife. When it came time to re-up with the Spanish team, he was ready and willing until Dynamo swept in and offered him a deal more lucrative than he could find anywhere in the NBA. He bit.
"It's been great. I love it there," Hansen said.
Of course, he'd like it on Venus if he had a hoop and net on his bubbled driveway, but Moscow, a city with a giant population and culture, he found appealing.
The tough part is missing family and friends.
Moscow has a ton of the comforts of his American home, theaters with first-run Hollywood movies — in English, of course. There's a Papa John's pizza and TGI Fridays and his local LDS branch is filled with native U.S. citizens who work at the embassy or giant U.S. corporations, including NuSkin.
His son Ryder just turned 4, and he and his wife are expecting their second son in July.
Hansen's been able to return to Utah during the summer months during his Eastern European experience, making the annual family run to Lake Powell, his family's getaway.
This past summer Travis and son joined his father, Scott, and BYU athletics director Tom Holmoe, associate athletics director Brian Santiago and BYU basketball coach Dave Rose on a Lake Powell excursion. "Those guys were a blast, the stories they told ... "
In Russia, Travis' wife, LaRee, has kept busy, not only with Ryder but working in the community and church. He's been heavily involved working with orphans, a big social challenge in Eastern Europe. She's been so locked into the issue, she's started a charity with her sister to help with the demand to take care of the orphaned.
"Busy, busy, busy," is how Travis explains his wife.
Hansen said he's learned a lot about life and the game since taking his talent to Europe. "What I've learned most is how much fun it is to play this game. I love it. I love being a teammate; it's a sport you can always improve and get better. I think I've gotten better every year. I love hanging out with the guys, the camaraderie.
"I had it at BYU, at Utah Valley, at high school, about everywhere I've been, it's been fun, except with Atlanta. It's always more fun when you win; everyone's happy when you win, from the trainers to the president of the team."
Hansen said he's kept up on BYU football and basketball while in Moscow. "Either by the Internet or by DVDs sent to me, I've followed it all, and I'm happy for coach Rose, he's doing a good job. Followed it like crazy."
Hansen loves watching Rose lead the Cougars to an MWC title and on the edge of delivering BYU its first undisputed championship in 19 years. "The guy is a stud."
So, Hansen is counting down the days when he can start shooting jumpers. He's banking on making a return from an injury that sometimes takes a least a year to fully recover. If anyone has the ability to rebound fast, it is this kid.
Hansen put it this way:
"I'd better be back, 'cause I'm getting awfully bored."
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com