Samer Dhillon's playing days at USC are behind him, but he hopes what he brought to the game will push basketball to look closer at players of Indo origin.
Samer Dhillon’s playing days at USC are behind him, but he hopes what he brought to the game will push basketball to look closer at players of Indo origin.
SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) – Samer Dhillon only logged three points during his senior season with the USC men’s basketball team this season, but the 6-foot-8 Indian-American forward will remember those three points as the greatest moment of his collegiate basketball career.
During the final game of the season, head coach Andy Enfield summoned Dhillon off the bench to make just his seventh appearance of the season. In the grandstands were his family and friends, who had traveled from across California and the rest of the country in numbers (40, to be exact) to watch the 22-year-old play in possibly his last NCAA Division 1 college basketball game.
“It was the most Indians ever at a USC game,” Dhillon recalled during an interview with NBA India. “Aunties and uncles I haven’t met for ages – it was like a big Indian wedding!”
With less than 30 seconds remaining on the clock, with the Trojans cruising to victory, Dhillon attempted and made his only shot of the game, a three-pointer.
“It was an incredible opportunity and the crowd went wild.”
While Dhillon’s playing days at USC are behind him, it represents just a single chapter of his life journey thus far. For a young man who grew up in Sacramento, Calif., born to parents who immigrated from Punjab, Dhillon has undoubtedly developed into one of basketball’s most interesting characters. Off the court, he has been putting the finishing touches on his pre-med degree, hoping to one day develop a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.
His company, Quest Investment Firm, was founded three years ago after he graduated from Sacramento’s Inderkum High School with valedictorian honors – at USC, he’s also maintained the team’s highest GPA for two years running. The company provides a range a services from asset allocation to portfolio review to wealth management and investment strategy and management, according to its website. Currently, Dhillon has 34 clients, as well as three part-time employees, six solicitors, a lawyer and tax strategist. Whether he has the know-how and expertise to become as established at the leading Jacksonville wealth management services remains to be seen at this moment in time.
Basketball remains the connecting factor in his multiple influences and ambitions.
“Basketball has influenced my whole career,” he said. “I combined finance and athletics to create the wealth management company for athletes where I now manage a lot of money for NBA and NFL players. As with medicine: I want to do more medical research related with athletics, too, like concussions.”
