FORMER KANSAS UNIVERSITY POINT GUARD JEFF HAWKINS TAKES A NAP with his son, Mavulous Mavrick Jeffrey Hawkins. Jeff Hawkins hopes to support his 3-month-old son with a return to pro basketball after he finishes rehab following surgery on his left knee.

Jeff Hawkins’ three-month European vacation was cut short last December when, unexpectedly, his funds ran low.

“The team owed me a little bit of money. I didn’t have some of the things I needed. I didn’t have a phone,” said the 24-year-old former Kansas University point guard, who averaged 15 points a game for a professional team in Bremen, Germany, last fall and into the winter.

“I was acting like a big baby. It was my first time away from home,” noted Hawkins, who averaged 5.4 points and 2.4 assists in 2005-06, his final season at KU. “My girlfriend was pregnant at the time. I had to make some phone calls to make sure everybody was OK. Finally I said I had to go home.”

So the 5-foot-11 Hawkins, who grew up in Kansas City and now lives in Hays with his girlfriend and 3-month-old son, returned to the U.S. in December, where he landed a job with Arkansas’ entry in the American Basketball Association.

Hawkins’ ABA stint lasted a week before a nagging left knee injury turned into a major problem.

“I called Dr. (Jeff) Randall, who performed successful surgery on me when I had torn cartilage my freshman year,” Hawkins said. “My bones were rubbing together. He had to go in and shave part of my bone down so it’d stop rubbing.”

Hawkins, who had the successful surgery Dec. 28, is completing the tail end of his rehab and will be ready to compete on former KU player Kirk Hinrich’s team in a summer pro-am league that tips off later this month at Penn Valley Community College in Kansas City, Mo.

“When I came back from the torn cartilage surgery, I actually was more explosive. I’d never jumped that high before,” Hawkins said. “It’s what I predict off this surgery, the leg will be stronger.”

FORMER KANSAS UNIVERSITY POINT GUARD JEFF HAWKINS TAKES A NAP with his son, Mavulous Mavrick Jeffrey Hawkins. Jeff Hawkins hopes to support his 3-month-old son with a return to pro basketball after he finishes rehab following surgery on his left knee.

That’s good because … “I want to get back playing somewhere. To be honest, I just want to go to the NBA, train for the NBA, get a chance to do a workout for NBA teams,” Hawkins said. “The D-league (developmental league) is a possibility. I just want to get in there with a team and show what I can do now.

“I have a whole different mind-set on how I look at things. A kid can change your whole outlook on life.”

Indeed. Hawkins, who is the first to admit he was a handful for his own mom and dad to raise, now is enjoying his first three months as a father of his own child.

He and girlfriend Heather Plante are raising Mavulous Mavrick Jeffrey Hawkins, a child with perhaps the most creative name in the entire state of Kansas.

“It (name) is unique. It’s something different,” Hawkins said, adding that having offspring Mavulous is “fabulous.”

“This little kid changed all my plans. When I came back I was working for Wells Fargo in consolidations in Olathe. He was born a month early. Once he came he was put in intensive care with some breathing problems. He’s fine now.

“I ended up coming here (to the Hays area where his girlfriend is from) to be with my kid. I love kids so much. It’s a huge pay cut, but I came here to work and rehab to get ready to play again.”

Hawkins has had two jobs in Hays since leaving the company in Olathe.

“I worked in a restaurant flipping burgers for my kid. I’d work seven hours straight in the kitchen. People would recognize me, come up to me to talk and I’d say, ‘It’s a long story.’

“Right now I bartend at a little club three nights a week. It gives me time to rehab in the day. One thing we’re trying to do is move back to Kansas City.”

In that vein, Hawkins wanted to give out his e-mail address (thehawk365@yahoo.com) for any employers who might want to hire the ex-Jayhawk who has a bachelor’s degree in communication studies and an interest in possibly becoming a broadcaster.

FORMER KANSAS UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL PLAYER JEFF HAWKINS, RIGHT, and his girlfriend, Heather Plante, kiss their son, Mavulous Mavrick Jeffrey Hawkins. The family of three is living near Hays while Hawkins rehabs his surgically repaired left knee in hopes of a basketball comeback.

“I want to get into basketball, but I will give my all to any job I have,” Hawkins said. “If a basketball opportunity came and it’s the best opportunity for myself and family I’d take that. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll enter the work force and choose that over basketball.

“If I can’t play basketball again, I’ll still have the biggest smile on my face just because of my kid. This kid makes me feel about 30 and I am only 24. He’s a handful and will be a bigger handful as he gets older. I know all the stuff I did. My parents say I’ll get back two times what I put them through. I think I’ll get four times ’cause they don’t know all the stuff I did.”

Hawkins’ mom, Addye, says she’s noticed a sparkle in her son’s eyes since Mavulous’ birth.

“Jeff seems quite focused,” Addye said, noting, “He’s always loved kids. When he played basketball in high school and college, he was always drawn to helping little kids. I always thought he’d be a great dad. I’d see him with his boxer, Echo, and thought, ‘If he gives Echo this much care, think of how great he’ll be with his own child.’ He really seems to enjoy being a father.”