Atlantic alum Ryan Hawkins will get to try his hand at professional basketball this year. Following a standout college career at Northwest Missouri State and Creighton, Hawkins tells KJAN Sports that he is signing with the Toronto Raptors organization.

Hawkins signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Raptors that will put him on Toronto’s G-League team Raptors 905, with the flexibility to convert the contract into a two-way deal with the NBA team.

Hawkins will be with the franchise for one-year on a minimum salary contract but will be eligible to earn a big bonus if he stays with the team’s G-League affiliate for 60 days.

When asked about how it feels to get the chance to play professional basketball Hawkins said, “It still really hasn’t hit me that this is a reality for me. Never really thought it would happen as a kid, it was always a dream but now that it’s finally a reality for me, It still hasn’t set in yet but I’m sure one of these days it will.”

Ryan said he had constant communication from the Raptors and others so he was hopeful he was going to get a chance. He said it was good it came when it did though. “It’s a really good thing that this contract worked out how it did and when it did because all of the European teams have already started their leagues and they are two, three, four weeks ahead of the NBA schedule. So the ship has already sailed on that opportunity so I would of had to find a real job had nothing happened out of this, so very thankful that it did.”

The Raptors 905 squad opens their season on November 9th and they are scheduled for a visit to Des Moines to face the Iowa Wolves on Thursday, December 29th and 31st at Wells Fargo Arena making a possibility that he would play close to home this year.

Listen to Ryan’s comments about signing below.

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