Sean Dockery's transition to college life was not an easy one. A product of inner-city Chicago, Dockery initially struggled to balance his new academic and social life with his basketball career at Duke. But now having overcome these struggles, Dockery is channeling his Duke experience to help mentor at-risk youth.
Dockery's initial struggles reflected on the court as well during his first two seasons with the Blue Devils. He appeared in most games but played sparingly during his freshman and sophomore seasons. Duke went to the Final Four in his sophomore year.
"It was very tough. There were some days I would cry to my mom and tell her I wanted to go home," Dockery said. "But I had a great support staff with my family, Coach Krzyzewski, Coach Collins, Coach Dawkins, they were the ones who got me through it."
It was during his junior year that the 6-foot-2 point guard finally put it all together, starting 22 games and knocking down 42.9 percent of his shots from 3-point range as Duke made a run to the Sweet 16.
He was an unselfish passer and a timely shooter throughout his career with the Blue Devils, but the staple of Dockery's game was his defensive intensity, averaging 1.5 steals per game for his collegiate career.
But it was not a defensive stand, but a shot, for which Dockery is now known best.
The date was Dec. 4, 2005. Duke held a comfortable held a comfortable 11-point lead in with 3:43 remaining in its ACC opener against Virginia Tech, but the Hokies stormed back to take a 75-74 lead with 1.6 seconds to play.
Dockery's shooting stroke was on that night. He had hit three of his first four attempts from beyond the arc, and he said it was one of those games where "it felt like throwing a rock into an ocean." But as Duke freshman Josh McRoberts lined up to inbound the ball under his own basket, Dockery thought he knew where the ball was going.
"I had J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams on my team, so I knew the play wasn't drawn up for me," he said. "But time was ticking so I ran towards the ball and Josh threw the perfect pass."
Instead, the ball came to Dockery, who turned, took a dribble and heaved a 40-foot shot that hit nothing but nylon shortly after the buzzer sounded. It was the last time that Duke students have stormed the court at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Dockery scored 19 points in the Blue Devils' 77-75 victory against Virginia Tech to keep his team undefeated and secure him a place in Duke basketball lore. More than six years before Austin Rivers would beat a buzzer of his own, Dockery joined Christian Laettner and Jeff Capel with one of the quintessential shots in Duke history.
It is a shot that Dockery said people still ask him about today.
"At least they remember me," Dockery said. "Now it's great. It's one of the more memorable shots at Duke and I'm just happy to have been a part of it."
After starting 32 of 36 games and averaging 7.1 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.7 steals per game during his senior season, the NBA did not come calling for Dockery. Instead, Dockery signed a six-month contract in Germany, where he played for Brose Basket Bamberg and won a league championship in his first year in the Basketball Bundesliga.
Dockery made his way back to the United States and played 15 games for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the NBA Development League before deciding that a European career suited him better. He returned to Germany and made stops in Romania and Poland before receiving the news that he was going to have a son. Dockery took the news as a sign that he needed to move on from basketball and focus on supporting his family.
But just as the transition to college basketball was a difficult one, Dockery's transition to life after basketball was tumultuous as well. He turned to party promoting to spend his free time, but that failed to fill the void.
"It was a depressing time," Dockery said. "You do something your whole life, and it's finally gone away. I was out of shape, I was partying too much and nobody really knew what was going on with me."
Struggling to move on from basketball, Dockery finally found his outlet—exercise.
Dockery began working as a personal trainer, teaching children proper fitness technique and helping them hone their basketball skills.
"That's my stress reliever. I'm finally back to being me," Dockery said. "I can push them and help them learn from my mistakes and be successful."
After spending time in Durham last year working as a mentor at the Emily K Center, Dockery found a way to combine his passion for exercise and desire to help inner-city youth. He has returned to Chicago and is in the process of starting a non-profit, Dockery Basketball University, which Dockery said should be up and running by the end of July.
"The only reason education was pushed so hard on me was because of basketball," Dockery said. "So that's my goal. To stress education, teach kids how to stay away from gangs and make good choices on and off the court."
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