Winnipeg’s Simon Hildebrandt exemplifies homegrown CEBL success story

Xavier Moon had scored the Winnipeg Sea Bears’ previous five points, putting them within two of the franchise’s first CEBL championship.

As he brought the ball up the court in Target Score Time, none of the 12,519 in attendance at the Canada Life Centre would have blamed the three-time MVP for holding it and attempting the winning shot on his own.

Instead, he dumped the ball into the post to DJ Burns, who quickly tossed it out to Simon Hildebrandt beyond the three-point arc.

Swish. Sea Bears win.

“As soon as that shot went up and it went in, my mind kind of went blank, kind of feeling a little bit of everything. It kind of took definitely a couple hours to kind of realize, you know, that it all actually happened,” Hildebrandt said Tuesday, three days after the ball went through the hoop.

For Hildebrandt, all that actually happened didn’t just begin with Moon’s entry pass. Instead, it started over three years earlier, when he was the first overall pick in the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s inaugural U Sports draft out of the University of Manitoba.

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The 23-year-old Winnipeg native’s journey through the CEBL since has seen him win Developmental Player of the Year twice and parlay that success into a two-year NCAA career at High Point and Washington State.

He’ll play professionally overseas for the first time this coming season in Germany with BBC Bayreuth.

Call that title-winning shot, then, the climax. For now.

“It’s been a long journey. I’ve had lots of different stops, played for lots of different teams and lots of different coaches. I think that I’ve learned little things in each program that I’ve been with that have helped me become the player that I am today,” Hildebrandt said.

Hildebrandt’s is the type of story the CEBL should continue pursuing as it heads into its ninth season in 2027 — emphasizing Canadian talent, especially of the homegrown and undiscovered type, is critical as the league has also increased the number of imports allowed on each roster from three to five.

The draft that allowed Hildebrandt to enter the league has also been replaced by “CEBL Signing Day,” in which each team signs two players from Canada’s university and college systems. Hildebrandt said the focus should remain on those pathways.

“Just keep showcasing and highlighting the talent in U Sports and the young talented Canadian kids,” Hildebrandt said. “Keep showing that U Sports is a super high level, and that you can go so many places from playing U Sports. I think having that next stepping stone from U Sports to CEBL before you end up playing professional full time is a huge step.”

Hildebrandt’s basketball journey could also lead to the national team, for which he has yet to play at the senior level. Still, CBC analyst and ex-national teamer Jevon Shepherd speculated during the broadcast of the championship game that Hildebrandt would be a good fit.

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Canada’s World Cup qualifiers pick up against Panama later this month in Quebec City before continuing in November.

“It would mean a lot. It’s definitely something that I’ve always wanted to do. It hasn’t always worked out the way I would have liked for the last couple years, just been a little bit unlucky with injuries and age groups, but yeah, I’d be super proud to wear Canada across my chest,” he said.

It didn’t always work out for Hildebrandt in the CEBL, either. He received just nine starts across two seasons in 2023 and 2024, then didn’t play in the league at all last season.

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Even this season, he played less than 10 minutes on seven occasions, blocked by Winnipeg’s stout frontcourt talent, including Canadian Emmanual Akot and American Jeremiah Tilmon Jr. However, both left the Sea Bears on the eve of the playoffs.

Enter Hildebrandt, who played more than 31 minutes just three times all season — the conference semifinal, final and CEBL championship games.

“At times there was guys that were playing and they were ahead of him, and he had to sacrifice. And there was a certainly a large number of games in the early portion of the season where it would be easy for him to look back and say, ‘I should have played more, or I should have had this,’” head coach Mike Raimbault said.

“And what Simon never did was make it about himself. And I think that had major trickle-down into the rest of the group’s buy-in.”

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Hildebrandt finished the season with career highs in starts (15), points per game (8.7) and rebounds per game (4.3). His three-point percentage rose from 29.1 in his rookie season to 37.9, and he put up 48 points over Winnipeg’s final two playoff wins.

The Saskatoon Mamba now appear to be employing a similar tack to the Sea Bears, with University of Saskatchewan athletes and Mamba members Easton Thimm and Mohamed Mahadhi up for this year’s developmental award.

In Winnipeg, though, fostering homegrown talent is tradition. In the team’s first-ever game in 2023, Winnipeg native Chad Posthumus hit the game-winner in a victory over the Vancouver Bandits at home.

Posthumus died 19 months later in December 2024 after complications with surgery for a brain aneurysm. His No. 33 was retired by Winnipeg the next season, and his legacy is ever-present within the Sea Bears. His parents were in attendance at this year’s Finals as well as last year’s Championship Weekend.

Sea Bears coach said Posthumus would have “hand-picked” Hildebrandt to be the Finals hero. Team owner David Asper said he called it.

“I said to Simon before the game, we started with a local guy, Chad, with a big bucket, and the place went crazy because people realized, ‘Oh my goodness, a local guy just did something playing pro basketball in front of a big crowd.’ And I said to him, ‘You pull a stunt like that, they’re going to name a street after you.’ And he did it. It’s amazing. It’s fantastic. I’m just so happy for him.

“And you watch his game today and how tough he played inside, and the type of physicality and determination that he showed, that’s our team. That’s what people should know we are.”

It’s what people should know the CEBL for, too.