Ty Sabin sits on a desk chair in his home in Milwaukee, where he has been rehabbing following a meniscus sculpt that ended his 2021 season in Italy.
After graduating from the Division III Ripon College in 2017, Sabin flew across the Atlantic to play for the Hørsholm 79ers of the Danish Basketligaen. A self-proclaimed “late bloomer,” Sabin knew his best bet of making a career out of basketball was to play in Europe.
“The tough thing with the U.S. is it’s basically two leagues: G League or NBA. When you’re in Europe or anywhere else overseas, you can name a country and they probably have two to three solid leagues in that country alone,” Sabin said. “I was kind of narrow minded; I didn’t really have any other interests. All I cared about was basketball all day, every day. So if I could keep playing, I wanted to. And if I could get paid to play, even better.”
However, when Sabin arrived in Denmark in 2017, he experienced what he described as a “culture shock.”
“I didn’t know what to expect in a different country. I honestly thought it would be like being in the States. I also thought it’d be like an NBA level, just in a different country, and it’s not,” Sabin said. “It’s like night and day. I went to another country and it was just like this different world.”
Since his first stint in Denmark six years ago, Sabin has played for five teams in five countries: Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Iceland and Italy.
“Sometimes the country itself or the city can be kind of uncomfortable, with the culture shock, the language barrier, whatever it is. But then when I’m on the court I’m most comfortable,” Sabin said. “You have to really love basketball because it’s not like the glamorous NBA where you have this insane lifestyle. You could be in a country where you’re one of five English-speaking people. If you don’t love the game and like going to practices and workouts, you probably won’t last a long time.”
Sabin has proven his love for the game in his time across Europe, becoming the leading scorer of two different leagues: the Swedish Basketball League in 2020 and Serie A2 in 2021. Sabin said he perseveres by solely focusing on the game for the eight months of each season.
“There’s just a lot more isolation than you realize because you obviously have your teammates, but it’s not like you know anyone in the town outside of that,” Sabin said. “I just kind of stay in my lane, but then it’s a long eight months of staying in my lane. So it can be tough in that scenario. I just think that’s why I keep going back to, you really have to love the sport because at the end of the day, I’m there for basketball.”
Following a career pausing injury at the end of his Serie A2 season in Italy, Sabin has spent time at home in Wisconsin recovering from the everyday grind of his recent years.
“The season’s really long. A lot of times you’ll play one game a week, so it’s a lot of practices and a lot of toll on your body. Sometimes we fly to games, but sometimes it’s very long bus trips. There are eight-hour bus trips when you play a game at 9 p.m., then you hit the road at midnight and you get back to your city at like 8 a.m.,” Sabin said. “It’s exhausting, takes a toll on your body.”
Even still, Sabin is counting his days to when he can make a return to playing abroad.
“When I’m here in the States, I wish I was overseas playing. Then when I’m overseas, sometimes I wish I was home,” Sabin said. “I’m kind of wishing on time.”
When asked about how basketball ties into his identity as a whole, Sabin reflected on the influence the sport has had on his life and how it has evolved throughout the years.
“Unfortunately, it consumes me,” Sabin said. “I could go on a three-game losing streak and be mad for three weeks, and that’s no way to live. I actually got a dog recently, just because I love dogs, but also because I wanted a distraction and I needed something to pull me away from basketball a little bit and have more balance. Being injured, I don’t feel like I’m the same person right now because I just want to be on the court. That’s when I’m most happy.”
Although playing on the other side of the world from his family and friends consists of long bus rides, a time difference and isolation, Sabin plans to keep playing for as far into the future as he can see.
“My goal is always to keep climbing the ranks and do well in one league, basically kill in that league, go up to the next one, kill it and go to the next one. I just kind of take a year at a time. It’s impossible to predict,” Sabin said. “I do as well as I can, control what I can control.”