One important chapter of Kyle Weems’ professional basketball career concluded last week, as he wore the Virtus Bologna uniform for the final time, in the Italian Basketball League playoffs.
The team’s run came to an end in the best-of-seven finals and it was announced that the team will not re-sign Weems after four seasons. The Bologna fans serenaded Weems with cheers prior to the final home game.
It was an emotional farewell for Weems, a star at Missouri State from 2008-12 when he became one of the most popular players in school history. Weems led the Bears to their only regular-season Missouri Valley Conference championship in 2011 when he also was named the Larry Bird Missouri Valley Player of the Year.
We’re talking about a player with a sweet jump shot, leadership and an engaging personality all rolled into one. The fans loved him, just like those in Italy have adopted him as one of their own.
“Man, it was something that you dream about or see on TV,” Weems said, comparing the ending of his Virtus Bologna experience to his final home game in a Missouri State uniform. “Other than the love I got at Missouri State on senior night, I’ve never experienced anything quite like that.
“Obviously, I feel the urge to stress my connection to those fans over these last four years. They were so supporting and so loving toward me and my family when I lost my father to lung cancer in 2019. The sendoff I got was something that I will never forget.”
Weems planning to stay in Italian Basketball League
Weems, 33, just concluded his 11th season playing professionally in Europe. He’s not ready to call it a career just yet, despite falling out of the regular playing rotation this season. He expects to sign with another Italian Basketball League team soon.
“I’m close to a deal in Italy in the first division again,” Weems said. “I just changed agents. There’s still some wrinkles to be ironed out, but it’s looking like we’ll be staying in the first division in Italy, just not quite sure where yet.
“Either way, the options I have are really good, financially and family-wise, and at this stage of the game that’s all I can ask for. We should be doing something here pretty soon. As soon as I do, I’ll make it official on all my social media so everybody will know.”
Weems returned to the United States over the weekend along with wife Jacque and sons Kyrie (7) and Christian (5). Jacque, a former Missouri State Lady Bear, is working toward a second college degree, this one in computer science. The boys are blossoming soccer players along with, of course, playing basketball.
After grabbing some quick vacation time in Orlando, the family is headed home to Kansas City for a weekend youth camp he annually puts on with his life-long friend and fellow Topeka, Kansas, native Michael Wilhoite. The former NFL linebacker will handle the football side of the camp and Weems the basketball part.
Getting ready for the next chapter
Shortly after that, Weems is hungry to get started working out for the next chapter of his basketball career. The way the past season turned out is a dose of extra motivation to prove himself in the Euro League.
“The Euro League season is so vigorous and so tough that in case of injuries, they want to have a lot of bodies on the roster,” Weems said. “We had like 16 guys with two or three guys always hurt, so it worked out for a majority of the season.
“There’s a rule in the Italian League, as well as some other countries, where there’s a limit on how many non-Italians can (be on the active) roster at once. We had nine from different countries. I was one of the three that were left out during the playoffs. It was pretty humbling.
“Coach decided to go with another type of roster. I never second-guess the good Lord. Everything happens for a reason.”
Great success in Bologna
Weems helped Virtus Bologna win the Euro Cup championship in 2021-22 and achieve elevated status to the Euro League. He averaged 6.2 points and 2.8 rebounds this season in the Euro League and 9.9 points and 2.9 rebounds per game in Italian Basketball League play, shooting 58.8% from two-point range.
Since he joined Virtus Bologna four years ago, Weems has won two Italian Supercups, one Italian league and a Euro Cup with the club.
Virtus Bologna coach Sergio Scariolo told EuroHoops.net after the team’s final home game: “If it had been Weems’ last game at Virtus, I can only say I was lucky to have coached this person, as well as this player, in these last two years. After two months in which he has not played, he is still the first to arrive, to encourage, to advise. Always with a smile and always with the correct body language.”
Not ready to retire yet
Weems said he leaves Virtus with great memories and envisions himself playing two more seasons.
“My hunger and eagerness to start preparing for the next season is probably at an all-time high considering the situation I had, not being able to play in the playoffs,” Weems said. “Being able to take that challenge every day to stay in shape, to work on my body, that’s something that I haven’t lost yet.
“I’m not sure when I will lose it. I hope it’s not within the next couple of years, but right now, it’s time to prepare for the next season. I’m pretty sure no matter where I’m going it’ll be a two-year contract and that will lock me in until the age of 35 going into 36.
“I think anything else after that is just icing on the cake.”
Weems eyeing career as an agent once playing days are done
Weems already has plans once his playing career does conclude. He’s going to become a sports agent, specializing in representing players in European basketball.
“That’s one of the reasons I changed representation. I got the opportunity to work with BDA, the Bill Duffy Agency, a big-time NBA agent here who recently merged with William Morris who just signed guys like Grady Dick and Jaylen Wilson of Kansas and Anthony Edwards of the Timberwolves. I would be on the international side. There’s a tenured veteran agent from Serbia who’s willing to show me the ropes and the ins and outs of it.
“I can start as soon as this summer going out to the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, watch some Summer League games, dive in and see what it’s all about. That way when the time is time to be done, I will know exactly what it is I need to be doing and hit it, head on.”
But first is the ‘Big Kev Give Back’
First up is the camp in his hometown with Wilhoite, a former Washburn University football standout who went on to play six seasons in the NFL with the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks. Wilhoite is now an assistant coach with the Broncos.
The “Big Kev Give Back” is a tribute to Weems’ father, Kevin Weems, who passed away in 2019 due to lung cancer.
“We have around 100 kids and I’m hoping for more,” Weems said. “It’s a blessing to be able to honor my late father who always wanted us to come back home to Topeka and give back and that’s what we’re doing.”
The cost of the day-long camp is $20 and more info can be found at the Big Kev Give Back website.
