Their sister thought they could take a road trip and make some memories.
“She said it would be a cool brother trip, a summertime adventure,” Josh Hurst said. “So we were like, let’s go!”
That’s how the Hurst brothers of Brea, California decided to hop in a car and drive from Orange County to Salt Lake City for a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. The four brothers arrived in Utah on Sunday and, by the following night, three of them were standing in front of the J-Note statue outside of Vivint Smart Home Arena, posing with their championship plaques—while the fourth member of their team lay in a hospital bed. The Hursts outlasted every other team in the men’s “Top Gun” division at this year’s Utah Jazz 3-on-3 Tournament, plus one dislocated knee, to claim the competition’s top prize and an invite to try out for the Salt Lake City Stars in the fall.
The winning bucket came more than three hours after their team (“Hurst First”) began their championship quest in 100-degree heat on an asphalt parking lot, when Jordan Hurst grabbed his own miss and scored one final bucket.
“It was a long day,” the exhausted youngest brother said afterward. “We’re happy. It was definitely a relief.”
The Hurst brothers grew up playing with and against each other in California, and all four of them played some level of college basketball. So when they signed up for Monday’s tournament, they felt good about their prospects. But with more than 200 teams across all competition levels, including 12 in the top men’s group, they couldn’t be certain.
“We definitely thought we had a chance,” Jordan Hurst said. “We’re good. But we didn’t know how good the other teams would be.”
The road to their championship got even more difficult in the quarterfinals, when Jared Hurst closed out on a shooter, stepped awkwardly, and dislocated his knee.
“His knee just went,” Josh Hurst said. “It was a little rough. A little traumatic.”
Their brother was taken to the hospital—and the rest of the Hursts took care of business.
The winning teams in each division will receive four tickets to a Utah Jazz game next season. The winners of the Top Gun female division will receive one hour of court time at Vivint Smart Home Arena. And the Hursts, the winners of the men’s Top Gun division, will get a free entry to try out for the Stars of the G League in September.
“That’s what we were hoping for,” Jonathan Hurst said.