The last time Jacob Grandison was in Finland he stuck his tongue to a pole – under the direction of his mother, being told it is Finish tradition – only to rip his tongue off the pole and see a stream of blood down his white button up and suit jacket before his grandmother’s funeral.
Safe to say it wasn’t the greatest trip ever, but even Grandison admits that it’s a funny story to look back on several years later.
Now, the Illini redshirt-senior is traveling back to Finland this summer to play in an international tournament with one of his two home countries. Grandison is a dual citizen on the United States and Finland.
“My mom is from Finland,” Grandison said. “She came here in 1986, she came here as an exchange program from the University of Helsinki where she swapped places with a student from America, so that’s how she came here. She came with one suitcase, met my dad here, stayed here.”
Grandison started 18 games for the Illini during their run to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament averaging 4.6 points and 3,4 rebounds a contest. He is looking at the opportunity to compete overseas in an international tournament as a good chance to improve his game.
“Life is all about opportunities,” Grandison said. “My mindset is, I’m going here to get better and represent Finland. I hope to gain experience and knowledge that will benefit me, Finland – while I’m there – and when I come back, Illinois.”
Grandison was approached by the Finish coach during the Illini’s regular season, but COVID still being high in the minds of many people, Grandison made sure to slowly work through process of potentially playing for Finland.
“I don’t remember when or who we were playing at the time, but I told him that I would talk to my people, my circle and the staff at Illinois,” Grandison said. “I wanted to make sure it was good and any clips with it and communicating with them about it. Setting things logistically that came to fruition towards the end or right after the season.”
Grandison’s path to play in the Big Ten is a difficult one to understand. After his relationship with his high school went sour Grandison decided to no longer play for his Oakland area high school.
He eventually was able to get an opportunity to play at Holy Cross before transferring to Illinois before the 2019-20 season, which he was forced to sit-out per NCAA rules. His contributions to the Illini last season provided Illinois head coach Brad Underwood a versatile four man with a good catch-and-shoot three-point stroke.
“I don’t even think words could truly express or lay out how impossible all of this is,” Grandison said of his journey to this point. “I hold it pretty dear to my heart, the rough road I have traveled. I always say that makes it that much better.”
Illinois’ roster has featured plenty of international talent the last four seasons since Underwood was hired in 2017 including Kofi Cockburn, Andre Curbelo, Giorgi Bezhanishvili and Andres Feliz, so when Grandison was approached with the opportunity to play overseas he said Underwood was all for it.
“I think he opened up by saying, ‘I think it’s a great thing for you to go, we think you should’ and it wasn’t too complicated,” Grandison said. “It was really just go over there and give it your best.”
Since the conclusion of the Illini’s season, Grandison has returned home to Northern California and began an intense workout schedule that requires him wake up around 4:00 a.m. every day and complete three workouts before noon.
He is going to miss workouts with the Illini this summer, but he said he’s not worried about that because early summer workouts with Illinois are designed to test a player’s work ethic.
“I’m not worried about missing anything,” he said. “I’m in communication with our coaches and [strength and conditioning coach Adam] Fletcher and I’ll be communicating with what I’m doing there and what I need to add. I don’t think I’m missing anything at all. I will just be getting an opportunity to do things that I didn’t get an opportunity to do last year, which is good.”
Despite not knowing any of his Finish teammates – or how to speak Finish – Grandison is excited to meet his new teammates for what he is calling a business trip and one that will give him an opportunity to better understand what it means to play in a more professional setting.
“I’m going their work minded,” Grandison said. “It’s a business trip, but I think it will be a nice block of time to kind of really take a full deep breath. I think coming home to uncoil this season after COVID and this is part of my career where money is on the table, where things need to be =handled this way and that way. This will be a nice way for me to kind of be on my own and focus on basketball.”
Grandison flew to Helsinki on Thursday where he will meet his teammates and train for over a week before flying to Tokyo for a bubbled training camp for a week. Finally, Finland is scheduled to play three games on July 7, 9 and 11 against Belgium, Japan, and Lithuania in Okinawa, Japan.
When Grandison returns he hopes to have three wins notched under his belt, but he is also looking forward to showing off an area of his game that hasn’t been seen by Illinois fans just yet.
“There is a lot more to me and my game than people have been able to see, so it will be a nice chance for me to be unleashed and for a new person to come back,” Grandison said.
