Bo Cruz vs. Juancho Hernangómez: ‘Hustle’ star’s NBA reality
PHILADELPHIA (BVM) – Juancho Hernangómez has been a power forward in the NBA since 2016, but many people are just coming around to finding that out after the basketball player’s acting debut starring as Bo Cruz in the new hit Netflix movie “Hustle” produced by LeBron James and Adam Sandler – who plays Stanley Sugerman, the fictional Philadelphia 76ers scout that discovers the Spanish sensation.
Who is Juancho Hernangómez?
Hernangómez is a 26-year-old from Madrid, Spain measuring at 6-foot-9 and 214 pounds. He signed his first professional basketball contract in 2012 where he’d play for his native Estudiantes club’s second team before ultimately getting promoted to its first team in 2014. Hernangómez fell just outside of the 2016 NBA Draft lottery and was selected 15th overall by the Denver Nuggets. The year prior, his older brother, Willy Hernangómez, was drafted in the second round by the Sixers. He’s now a center for the New Orleans Pelicans.
Juancho spent the better part of his first four seasons in the NBA with the Nuggets. On Feb. 5, 2020, he was packaged in a four-team trade to the Minnesota Timberwolves. When filming began that fall for “Hustle,” Juancho was still a member of the T-Wolves and even missed some workouts. By the time the film was released however, the Spanish big man had been traded four more times. Juancho went from the Timberwolves to the Grizzlies (who he never played for), then the Celtics to begin the 2021-22 season and landing back in the Western Conference for the Spurs and now the Utah Jazz.
Six seasons into his NBA career, Juancho has played 297 games, started 66 and averaged 5.4 points and 3.4 rebounds in 15.7 minutes of action. A far cry from the hype around the fictional Bo Cruz. However, Juancho has made a nice living off basketball earning roughly $22 million according to Spotrac. Next season he’ll enter the final year of his three-year, $21 million contract originally signed with the Timberwolves before becoming an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Who is Bo Cruz?
He was just a 22-year-old construction worker hustling streetballers in Spain who didn’t think he could hoop because he wasn’t wearing the latest Nike’s, instead he rocked cargo shorts and boots. Cruz’s raw talent intrigued Stanley Sugerman who was so infatuated with who he considers to be “the new Freak” (Giannis Antetokounmpo) that he came on a little strong during their first interaction.
It’d take a FaceTime call with Dirk Nowitzki before being welcomed into Cruz’s home where he lived with his mother, Paola, and daughter, Lucia. Enticed to give up the construction life for the NBA as a rostered player with a minimum contract of $900,000, the “Cruz Missile” made way for Philly to impress the Sixers’ front office.
Without completely spoiling the movie, the path to the Association isn’t so easy for Cruz who is forced to train around the clock with Sugerman for the next six weeks to get into the NBA Draft Combine.
It’d take a viral social media campaign, #BoaChallenge, to get Cruz an invite to the combine, but that opportunity would nearly be shattered when Kermit Wilts (played by Anthony Edwards, a former Timberwolves teammate of Juancho’s) gets inside his head and a fight breaks out on the court.
Arguably one of the most ridiculous parts of “Hustle” is that Cruz and Wilts are pitted against each other multiple times in scrimmages when they don’t play the same position. In real life, Anthony Edwards is a 6-foot-4 shooting guard and Juancho Hernangómez is a 6-foot-9 power forward. While Wilts does largely make Cruz look silly (and the real Ant-Man would dominate Juancho 1-on-1 all day), there is a sizable height difference that makes for an intriguing battle on screen.
Is Bo Cruz in the 2022 NBA Finals?
The movie “Hustle” leads you to believe that you’re witnessing the present day NBA in which Boston Celtics’ President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens makes the move to draft Bo Cruz. He’s seen wearing a No. 22 Celtics jersey (honoring Stanley Sugerman’s college number from his playing days at Temple) as Boston prepares to take on Philadelphia.
While in reality Juancho Hernangómez would’ve been a Boston Celtic at the time that final scene was filmed (and actually wore No. 41 on his jersey), he is not currently a member of the 2022 Eastern Conference champions that are two wins away from the franchise’s 18th NBA title. Hernangómez’s Jazz were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Dallas Mavericks in six games. It was only his second postseason appearance, and first since 2018-19 with the Nuggets.
