Education
Kanacević attended and played basketball for Curtis High School.
Kanacević attended and played basketball for Curtis High School.
Previously, he played basketball with Saint Joseph"s University, where he helped lead the team to the 2014 Atlantic 10 championship. Although Halil excelled, Curtis was a chronically overlooked high school in basketball circles, and had the misfortune of barely missing chances to make long runs in New York high school basketball competition. Due to this, he was often overlooked in the recruiting process, although he received offers from University of Central Florida, Manhattan College, Quinnipiac, and Hofstra.
He eventually committed to Hofstra.
Kanacević originally committed to Hofstra, but after a season he decided in May 2010 to move to Saint Joseph"s University. He made his March Madness debut in 2014, when Saint Joseph"s was eliminated by eventual tournament-winners Connecticut in the first round.
He scored 12 points in Saint Joseph"s 81-89 loss. During his four years at Saint Joseph"s, Kanacević scored 1,093 points, the school record.
At Saint Joseph"s, he was coached by Philosophy Martelli.
Kanacević signed his first professional contract with Virtus Roma in April 2014. After only a few months, he terminated his contract with Roma and moved to KK Union Olimpija on a one-year deal. In July 2015, Kanacević joined the Washington Wizards in the National Basketball Association"s 2015 Summer League.
On August 27, 2015, it was announced that Computer-assisted instruction Zaragoza of Spain signed Kanacević.
On January 6, 2016, he parted ways with Zaragoza and one week later he signed with Montenegrin KK Budućnost. He averaged almost 5 points and rebounds per game during the 2011 International Basketball Federation Europe Under-20 Championship.
He was born in the United States. and raised in South Beach, Staten Island. His family is Montenegrin Bosniak born in Ostros, Bar and emigrated to the United States. from Montenegro in the late 1980s.