The Hamilton Honey Badgers announced Tuesday that they have signed Team Canada guard Aaron Best to a contract for the 2021 season. Best committed to the Honey Badgers last spring before opting out of the CEBL Summer Series due to COVID-19 concerns. This will mark the five-year pro’s first season in the Canadian Elite Basketball League.

            “I’ve had the privilege of playing with Aaron on the Senior Men’s National team and he is arguably the best defensive guard in our program”, said Honey Badgers General Manager Jermaine Anderson. “Aaron leads by example, competes to win every night and his work ethic is contagious. We’re looking forward to having him join the Honey Badgers family this summer.”

            Best played five years at Ryerson University where he had career averages of 14.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.1 steals in 93 games. He rejoins 2020 All-CEBL First team standout and Ryerson teammate JV Mukama who re-signed with the Honey Badgers last month.

            Best has 184 professional games and 4000 minutes under his belt during five seasons as a pro, beginning in Lithuania during the 2016-17 season. A 2017 draft selection by the Long Island Nets of the NBA G League, the Scarborough native spent the 2017-18 season as a starting member of the Raptors 905 where he averaged 7.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in 52 games. Best played for MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg in Germany in 2018-19 and with PAOK Thessaloniki in Greece in 2019-20. This season he is playing for Boulazac Basket Dordogne of the LNB Pro A League in France, where he is averaging 11.4 points in 26 minutes per game. He most recently represented Canada in the FIBA AmeriCup 2022 qualifier, where he helped lead Canada to its first of two wins over the U.S. Virgin Islands with a game high 28 points February 17.

            Best is the Honey Badgers fourth signing of 2021, joining starters Duane Notice, Jean-Victor Mukama and Kalif Young who were all announced during the past month. Hamilton is coming off a 4-4 record and third place finish in the CEBL Summer Series, which marked the first professional sports in Canada to return to play after Covid-19 halted sports in March of 2020. More than 1.2 million viewers across Canada watched games live on CBC, and games were carried to more than 130 million viewers around the world.