Know Your Team: Jason Calliste
Sudbury Five
6'2
Guard
From Scarborough, Ontario
2019 NBLC Champion
2020 All-Canadian Team
Never looking back from his early days, where he set team records, Jason Calliste remains a highly reliable and consistent threat on offence who can play just as well in all areas on the court.
Rated the sixth-best high school player in North Carolina, where he played at Quality Education Academy in Winston-Salem, Calliste was recruited to the Detroit Mercy Titans. A regular starter for the Titans, in junior year he appeared in every game and finishing on 14.4 points, 3.3 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game.
In addition, he scored more than 1000 points in his three seasons with the Titans, and in 2012 appeared in the NCAA Division 1 championship, the first for the team since 1999, where they lost to Kansas 65-50 in the first game. Calliste spent his final NCAA year with the Oregon Ducks. Despite coming off the bench in all but one game, he set a new team three-point percentage record in a season (50%), as well as being Oregon’s third leading scorer and the tenth best field goal shooter in the Pac-12 conference.
2014-15 would be his first professional season, which he spent with the Maine Red Claws in the NBA D-League. He played in 40 games, with 3 starts, and averaged 8.4 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists on 44% field and three-point shooting.
The Red Claws had the joint-best record in the season and finished first in Eastern Conference, but were ultimately whitewashed in first round of the play-offs by the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. The following season, he joined the BK Barons in Latvia, averaging 13.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.3 steals. He returned to the Red Claws in 2016, appearing in 19 games and socring 4.8 points per game.
Calliste played in Canada for the first time in 2017, when he joined the KW Titans. With 12.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 25 games, he helped the team reach the playoffs in their debut season. He then started the following season with Palencia in Spain, then left after seven games for the Moncton Magic. A solid and efficient bench player, he played a significant part in Moncton reaching the Atlantic Division finals, ending the season on 9.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game.
He was such a significant part of the Magic's game plan, the team were quick to retain him for the 2018-19 season, where he averaged 9.4 points in 42 games. He finished the season as part of Moncton's first championship team and re-signed with the team in hope of repeating this run, but after nineteen games and 11.8 points per game, the season was curtailed.
While he will no longer be plying his trade in Moncton, he will be remaining in his homeland and looking to pick up where he left off when the NBLC Canada continues, this time for the Sudbury Five.
Picture: Jacinthe LeBlanc/The Telegraph Journal
