Brian Patrick Heaney (born September 3, 1946) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player and coach. He spent one season in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA) as a member of the Baltimore Bullets during the 1969–70 season.

Career

Player

Heaney attended

Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School is a private, Roman Catholic, co-educational, college-preparatory high school located at 357 Clermont Avenue in the Ft. Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. The school serves students in grades 9 ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, before enrolling at

Acadia University Acadia University is a public, predominantly Undergraduate education, undergraduate university located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, with some Postgraduate education, graduate programs at the master's level and one at the Doctorate, doctor ...

in Canada in 1964. He helped the Axemen win the 1965 Canadian University Men's Basketball National Championships. Heaney earned CIS Tournament All-Star Team honors in 1965 and 1966 and was a First Team All-Canadian in 1969. He set a single-game scoring record of 74 points. He was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets in the 19 round of the

1969 NBA draft The 1969 NBA draft was the 23rd annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 7 and May 7, 1969, before the 1969–70 season. In this draft, fourteen NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college ba ...

from

. Heaney was the first CIAU player to play in the NBA and along with Jim Zoet, are the only two

U Sports U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body for universities in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country and four regional conferences: Ontario University Athletics (OUA), Résea ...

players to have played in an NBA game. He split the 1969–70 season between the Bullets, scoring a total of 30 points in the NBA, and the Sunbury Mercuries of the Eastern League. He returned to the Mercuries for the 1970–71 season.

Coach

In 1971, he was named head men's basketball coach at Saint Mary's University in

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...

. Under his guidance, the Huskies won national titles in 1973, 1978 and 1979. Heaney was the recipient of the Stuart W. Aberdeen Memorial Trophy as CIS Coach of the Year in 1973. In 1975, Heaney became the head coach of Canada's Women's National Team and took the squad to the

1976 Olympic Games 1976 Olympics refers to both: *The 1976 Winter Olympics, which were originally to be held in Denver, United States, but relocated to Innsbruck, Austria *The 1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of t ...

, before returning to Saint Mary's in 1977. He served as head coach until 1979. During his seven-year tenure as the Huskies' head coach, Heaney had a record of 87 wins and 21 losses. After working as head coach of the University of Alberta men's basketball team from 1979 to 1983 and of the University of Toronto men's basketball team from 1983 to 1985, Heaney took a job in the financial services sector and became a CIS and NBA broadcaster. In 2002, he served as Honorary Chairman of the CIS Men's Championship. From 2007 to 2010, Heaney was the athletic director at Acadia University and then returned to his business job and broadcasting.

Sportscaster

During the 2000s, Heaney also served as a studio analyst for TSN on their

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), E ...

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

broadcasts.

Honours

Heaney is a member of the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame, Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame and the Acadia Sports Hall of Fame.

Career statistics

NBA

Source

Regular season

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Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

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Playoffs

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1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

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References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heaney, Brian 1946 births Living people Acadia Axemen basketball players Baltimore Bullets (1963–1973) draft picks Baltimore Bullets (1963–1973) players Guards (basketball) Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School alumni Basketball players from Brooklyn Toronto Raptors announcers U Sports coaches American men's basketball players