Alexa Hart Overcame Early Career Adversity To Find Success & Stability in Professional Basketball

(Image - Alexa Hart - Ohio State Buckeye - 2014-2018)

Years Pro - Six

Position - Forward/Center

Current Club - Recoletas Zamarat

League - LF Challenge (Spain) 

Alexa! Tell Us About Your Pro Career - Life has a way of presenting unique curveballs to each and every individual. This is to say that no matter how disciplined one is in planning and preparing for things like careers, businesses, projects etc., unforeseen circumstances may occur that can potentially halt or derail dreams & aspirations. How one navigates through life challenges is the most important factor in ultimately achieving certain goals or not. 

This was the case for veteran Pro Buckeye Alexa Hart (Ohio State 2014-2018) as the Columbus, OH native would encounter some adversity early on in her professional career. During the pandemic in Spring 2020, Alexa Hart appeared on former OSU teammate Kelsey Mitchell's podcast as the featured guest. The topic of discussion was 'Mental Health In Sports' & Hart was courageous enough to detail some of the inner struggles she went through in the transition from Ohio State to professional basketball. 

The mental transition from Alexa Hart, Ohio State Buckeye to Alexa Hart, professional basketball player actually began in Columbus. As many may remember, Hart came to the Buckeyes as a four star high school prospect in the highly rated 2014 freshmen class with fellow prep star & friend Kelsey Mitchell. Alexa immediately made a name for herself as a formidable post player on an Ohio State team in need of a legit low post presence. 

Hart was a model of durability in her first two seasons with the Buckeyes. She played in all 69 games, starting 66 of those contests in that two year span. As a freshman hart averaged 12 points, 9 rebounds & broke Jessica Davenports single season block record with 129 blocks.

Hart's role would significantly change in her junior season  (2016-2017) where she was used more as a backup big after some new additions to the starting lineup. The reduction of minutes not only affected her statistical output, but also took a toll on her mentally as she attempted to adapt to coming off the bench for the first time in her career. As fans who primarily only think about the team & program functioning as a whole..rarely do we really wonder about how a role change can affect a player's mental & overall individual development. In this situation, Alexa went from being a prominent post contributor to averaging just 16 minutes of playing time a game.

Life In The Pros - In the podcast interview with Kelsey Mitchell, Alexa Hart more or less implied that the lack of minutes & freedom to expand her individual game in her upperclassmen years at Ohio State may have had a detrimental effect on her pro prospects on the next level. Hart went on to talk about the disappointment of going undrafted in the 2018 WNBA Draft and "not being there mentally" as a training camp invite with the Atlanta Dream. 

With things not working out in the States, Alexa began her rookie pro campaign overseas with Israeli club Bnot Hertzeliya. In what seemed like a solid situation is Israel, Hart started in five of thirteen games played with average of 9ppg, 6 rpg and 2 blocks per game. Yet, more adversity would come her way when she was inexplicably waived mid-season.   

The Bounce Back -  The Situation in Israel provided a fork in the road moment, so to speak, in Alexa Hart's career. After going undrafted in the WNBA Draft, getting cut from the Atlanta Dream's training game roster, and also being let go by her first overseas pro club, she could have easily looked at those consecutive setbacks, packed up all of her basketball gear and attempted to try another career path. But to her credit, Alexa persisted & persevered with the mindset that better days would arrive if she just stuck with it. 

The final part of Alexa Hart's podcast interview with Kelsey Mitchell mentions how Hart found a renewed basketball energy in the summer of 2019 by playing in rec leagues & a semi-pro organization prior to her second year of pro basketball overseas. The 6'3 post traveled to Germany for the 2019-2020 season where she found success playing for Freiburg with a scoring average of 15.2 ppg & 8.1 rpg in 22 played games. She was the DBBL player of the week four times and was named to the all league second team. 

Alexa Hart really hasn't looked back since her 2019-2020 run in Germany. She has earned opportunities with clubs in France, Spain, Australia & has started for all of those teams. Hart currently plays for Zamarat, the number one ranked team in Spain's 3rd division. With the league leading regular season record of 22-7, Hart (second leading scorer) & Zamarat are looking to capture the league championship in late April, early May post-season action.

Videos - Check out the podcast interview with Buckeyes Alexa Hart & Kelsey Mitchell along with some videos from her 4th & 5th pro seasons in France & Australia