Jessica Kuster was with friends at a Turkish restaurant in London nearly two years ago. Her Bible was in front of her. So, too, was an impending crossroad.
A former Reagan High School basketball standout, Kuster had found success playing professionally in Italy, Hungary, Romania and Czech Republic. But for all the accolades earned and adulation showered upon her, she felt emptiness.
Kuster explored the true meaning of her life. Did she simply want to be known for having a textbook jump shot? Or did she want to be remembered for helping make the world better? She would soon decide.
“It was emotional,” Kuster said. “I was really counting the cost of what my purpose here on Earth was, realizing there was so much more that needed to be done to help the world than me playing basketball.”
In July, two years after the gathering in London, Kuster retired. At age 28, she left behind a thriving professional career to become a minister. Her mission is to help “people’s hearts to be better.”
Kuster’s decision to leave the hardwood for the pulpit was in the works for a couple of years, but was heightened when she witnessed the divisiveness and civil unrest in the United States while in Australia, where she played the 2019-20 season with the Brydens Sydney Uni Flames of the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL).
“My purpose in life is not basketball,” said Kuster, who was an All-American at Rice University and graduated as the school’s career leader in points (2,081), rebounds (1,376) and double-doubles (67). “Looking at how crazy the states are right now — everybody is, ‘We need no hate. We need love.’ I want to be about that.”
Kuster’s journey to where she is today began in Sicily, Italy. With a backdrop rich in history and culture, such as picturesque streets, villages and churches, she should have been having the time of her young life.
The 6-foot-2 Kuster guided Passalacqua Spedizioni Ragusa in Serie A, Italy’s premier national league, to a championship in 2019. She averaged 12.6 points and 5.9 rebounds in 33 games. In 2016-17, while playing for PEAC Pecs in Hungarian A Division, she averaged 16.9 points and 7.4 rebounds and four times was Eurobasket.com’s Hungarian League player of the week. Kuster’s team, Basketball Nymburk, won the 2016 Czech Republic Cup.
“It blew my mind that I was actually being paid to live there and getting a chance to play there actually taught me about the truths behind the culture most people don’t get to see or understand, which I am forever grateful for,” Kuster said of living in Italy. “Not in a million years did I expect to live in Italy for two years.”
Toward the end of her tenure in Italy, though, a transformation began.
Kuster grew up in San Antonio attending the Catholic church with her family, but admitted she “did her own thing” when she moved to Houston in 2010 for college. Basketball, academics and a social life garnered much of her attention, more so than reading her Bible.
Soon, however, Kuster took inventory of her life, zeroing in on what was important to her.
“I did a lot of traveling,” Kuster said of her professional career. “I saw a lot of cool things, and kind of seeing those things and still feeling pretty unfulfilled, it was like, ‘OK, there’s something else out there.’ It was kind of just a revelation, an epiphany, of ‘is this what I want to spend my life doing?’
The answer was no.
Kuster now is in Los Angeles, studying to become a women’s ministry leader, with the expectations of leading a church. She leads Bible study and serves in different leadership roles.
“There is a big difference between using the platform to talk about God and going out to make disciples like the Christians called in Matthew 28:19,” Kuster posted on social media when announcing her retirement. “I will be forever grateful for the lessons, people and experiences I had during the journey. Choosing to live according to the Bible has changed me more than I imagined and I can’t wait to help others get out of the valley.”
Reem Moussa, who played three seasons with Kuster at Rice, wasn’t surprised that her former teammate made such a drastic change in her life. Kuster, she said, “always had big dreams, whether basketball-related or otherwise.”
“Jessica is a natural leader,” said Moussa, who now plays professionally in Egypt. “I am not surprised by anything she does, honestly, because at the end of the day, whatever she chooses to do I know she will give it 110-percent. It has been her mindset through her basketball career and I have no doubt it will be the same when she becomes a minister. She was always patient and caring about the team, and I am sure it’s the same with her community as well.”
terrence@terrencesports.com
Twitter: @sa_terrence1