It would be hard to top the last year in Aaron Best's life.

From winning a CEBL Championship last August with the Brampton Honey Badgers alongside coach Ryan Schmidt, to winning the British Basketball League championship with the London Lions in May, where he was also coached by Schmidt, Best has been a champion two times over in a single calendar year. 

 Of course, these on-court accomplishments can't begin to compare to the changes in Best’s life off-court. After winning his CEBL championship last summer, Best immediately flew to London to get his apartment ready for his wife April, who would be joining him to finish out the final months of her pregnancy before the two welcomed their first child, a son named Austin, in October.

“Shout out to my wife April,” Best said. “She came [to London] on, like, the last day that she could medically fly. "My wife has been with me everywhere that I've gone. She's the real MVP."

 Best has spent the past seven years playing professionally and April has been with him at each stop as his basketball journey has taken the two from Toronto, where Best proposed on Senior’s Night at Ryerson University, to Lithuania, Germany, Greece and France, before this past year in London. 

 An injury kept Best sidelined in the weeks leading up to Austin’s arrival, but no amount of time could have prepared the 30-year-old for the overwhelming rush of emotions when he and his wife welcomed their son into the world.

 “I was a complete mess,” Best said. “Just uncontrollable sobbing, a complete mess. The doctors came in and were like, ‘Sir, can you please sit down?’ I was just a mess, in like, the best way. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever witnessed. And everything changed after that. Everything changed for the better.”

After giving his all to basketball for so many years of his life, Best’s daily routine changed overnight. 

 “It’s one thing to give your all to your sport, and now you come home and now you have a new responsibility,” he said. “It’s kind of the same mentality with on the court, I do what needs to be done for the team, you know?"

Nine months later, Best still has to pinch himself.

“Sometimes I even have to stop and say to April, like, ‘We have a child. He’s right there. We have a kid. We’re parents. [You're] a mom. I’m a dad.'” 

While grandmothers from both sides came to London to visit after Austin’s arrival, Best is thrilled to be back home for the offseason where he is getting to introduce his son to all of his friends and family while also getting the rare moment to reflect on all that has happened.

Winning two championships in two different leagues in a single calendar year is a rare accomplishment. Getting to do it with the same coach for both teams is even rarer. The player-coach relationship of Best and Schmidt has been built over the past decade at various levels and stops along the way.

 “I think it was in 2017, 2018, with Raptors 905, it just started with talking about basketball and working out in the gym, getting extra work in and that’s where we forged our relationship,” Best said. “Finding the little details and trying to find the slight edges to get better. We’ve been good ever since."

As the two have advanced their individual careers, Best doesn't take their shared successes for granted. 

“I think he’s a hell of a coach and I think this is really just the beginning for him and for me,” Best said. 

In addition to his time with the Honey Badgers and Lions, Best also represented Canada during the FIBA Men’s Basketball World Cup 2023 Americas Qualifiers over the past year. The 6-foot-4 guard played in seven of Canada’s 12 qualifying games, helping the team to a FIBA-best 11-1 record as the team finished atop the Group E rankings. Best averaged 10.4 points over his seven appearances at various windows in the qualifying process.

“It’s been nothing short of amazing,” Best said of getting to represent Canada. “I was very fortunate to be able to be a part of it. It’s something that I take a lot of pride in, I take it seriously, and I love doing it.

“It’s a bit like a family reunion [when we get together],” he continued. “We meet up for the windows and everyone sits around and plays cards, cracks jokes and catches up. It helps us kind of reset and recharge the batteries, for the long haul of a season overseas. It gives you a bit of home and it’s always nice to have that. It gives you a chance to catch up with the guys you grew up playing with and against.”

Best is always happy to see a fellow Canadian on the other side of the court when he’s suiting up overseas. This past season in London he faced off against fellow Team Canada alums Trae Bell-Haynes and Conor Morgan. He also stays in touch with many of his current and former Canadian teammates, shouting out Bell-Haynes, Kaza Kajami-Keane and Owen Klassen, coaches Nate Mitchell and Michael Meeks, as well as veterans Jevohn Shepherd, Jermaine Anderson and current London Lions Basketball Director Ashton Smith for being part of the basketball support system while playing away from home.

He speaks with pride about the growth of the program as well as the flood of young talent coming up in Canada.

“I feel blessed to be part of it because it’s been a hall of a journey so far,” he said. “I’m just honoured and blessed.”

While Best and his family are taking advantage of the offseason, he can’t help but laugh when thinking about how much life has changed since his son’s arrival.

“The times in our lives before him are really starting to fade away now,” he said. “I stop and think about what we were doing, like what were we even doing with our time before we had him?”

While Sunday is Father’s Day, after watching April hold things down at home while he's playing basketball, every day is Mother’s Day in the Best household. 

“In my family firsthand, seeing how hard it is to be a parent, and being a mom especially, how they just make it look so graceful and effortless?" Best said. "It’s really hard. I would just like to send love and appreciation to all of the parents in my family, especially to my wife, my mom, my grandma, aunties, and mother-in-law. Everybody that’s been with me, and just, all the moms out there.