Big-Time Contributor
Whether it's in his hometown or in the fourth quarter, Jameer Nelson stands tall in providing the winning edge.
The city of Chester, Pennsylvania, is short on a lot of things, but thanks to the efforts of Magic point guard Jameer Nelson, hope isn't one of them.
In fact, offering hope has become one of Nelson's specialties.
He's done it for years on the basketball court, starting at Chester High School, then at St. Joseph's College a few miles down the road in Philadelphia and now as part of the foundation in the rebuilding of the Orlando Magic.
Basketball, however, is a backdrop to his latest venture, an effort to offer hope for a better future to school-aged children in his hometown. His first step was to join one of Chester's prominent citizens, Dr. Earl Pearsall, in running the Youth Interlock Society, ostensibly an AAU basketball program, but one that requires a lot of work off the court before you get to play on it.
His aim is to open the eyes of Chester's youth to the opportunities that exist, if they get on the right track early enough in life. The Youth Interlock Society is open to boys and girls ages 8 to 18 who recognize where their priorities should lie.
"Academics, then athletics," Nelson said, "instead of athletics and ... well, pretty much nothing."
Nelson has first-hand knowledge about both sides of this subject. Chester is a poor, struggling suburb of Philadelphia. The median income is barely over $25,000 a year, the median house sells for only $43,000 and one-third of the adult population doesn't even have a high school degree.
Nelson remembers a time in his life where it looked like he would fit in all those statistical categories or maybe worse.
"I hung out with the wrong crowd, I didn't pay much attention to school my first few years in high school and I fell way behind," he said. "There are a lot of great athletes in Chester who were like that. They were good enough athletically to play in college, but they couldn't come close to make it academically and it still happens like that.
"I want to change that. I want to turn the thinking around, help kids make it academically so they can use their athletic talents to go somewhere and get a college education. If we can do that for even one or two kids a year, we've done our job."
The Youth Interlock Society specializes in tutoring children who have fallen behind in school. They have 50 volunteers who spend four to five hours a week helping children with math, science, reading, writing and other subjects. This year, YIS selected 10 sixth-grade girls that it hopes will stay in their program all the way through high school graduation and on to college. Next year, YIS will start a similar program for 10 sixth-grade boys.
"We're trying to foster an environment of academic enrichment and athletic achievement," said Pearsall, a retired doctor who started the program and, along with Nelson, provides all the funding. "Having Jameer's name is crucial to our success with these kids.
"He's the first Chester athlete to 'make it' and for him to come back and visit these kids in their elementary and junior high schools and share his experiences and concerns with them ... well, it's hard to say how much that means. He's a hero to a lot of these kids and when he comes back and tells them they can make it the same way he did, that message gets through."
The "coming to the rescue" mentality plays well on a basketball court, too.
This season in Orlando, Nelson is developing a reputation as a "fourth-quarter guy," someone the team counts on when crunch time comes, as it inevitably does in NBA games.
The reputation started innocently enough at Houston in the fourth game of the season. The Magic and Rockets were trudging through a nondescript night of basketball that Nelson had contributed almost nothing to when he suddenly caught fire late in the fourth quarter.
He came into the game with just over three minutes left and Orlando trailing 67-63. He immediately knocked down a jumper and then hit back-to-back three-pointers and followed it up with a driving layup. He ended up scoring 10 points in the final three minutes and the Magic rallied to win 76-74, their first victory of the season.
"When you come off the bench and hit a couple of shots, you want to do what we call a 'heat check,' see if you're really hot and can extend that to four, five or even six in a row," Nelson said. "I didn't have enough time to get up that many shots, but I made all the ones I could take that night."
He did it again a few games later in wins over Washington and Portland, then solidified his role as the Magic's "closer" by getting nine of his 16 points in the fourth quarter of a win at Boston. He has been a permanent fixture in the Magic's fourth-quarter lineup every game since then.
"I think Jameer's success late in games is because he gets a good feel for how teams are playing him defensively early in the game, then uses that to his advantage later on," Magic Coach Brian Hill said. "He knows when to go behind the pick-and-roll and take a shot and when to turn the corner off that same play and get in the lane where he can attack the basket.
"I'll tell you this: When he's attacking the basket, we can be a pretty tough team to defend. When he gets in the lane, he's not afraid to take on the big guys and either create a shot for himself or somebody else. That opens up the floor for our perimeter guys or he ends up getting fouled and we're shooting free throws. Either way, it turns out something good for us."
The starring role late in games has helped Nelson accept his role as a backup early in games. He was a starter and star in both high school and college and it's a humbling experience for young players to arrive at the NBA and find their role reduced.
"There comes a time when you have to be smart enough and mature enough to realize what your team needs you to do and do that job to the best of your ability," Nelson said. "I want to be a starter, but I'm not a selfish guy. I understand it's not my time to start, but I still have to contribute something to the team and I can do that in the role I'm in now. I don't think I really understood that my first year, but I have a mentor that's been teaching me and it finally has sunk in."
That mentor would be Doug Overton, another Philadelphia native who played 11 seasons in the NBA and started only 62 of the 500 games he played. Overton played for 10 teams and was popular because of his willingness to accept whatever role teams asked him to play. He has convinced Nelson to do the same.
"Doug is probably my closest friend in basketball and he had a pretty solid career being a backup so I can see there's nothing wrong with that," Nelson said. "If I stay in the game mentally, I can still affect the outcome when I'm on the floor and that's really what you want to do as a player."
The Magic have noticed that maturing process.
"Jameer is important to the success of this team and I think he's starting to realize that," Hill said. "It's important to any team to have a guy who can come into the game and score, create scoring for his teammates, defend or rebound and Jameer can do all of those things. "As he get more experience, he's learning that an NBA point guard has to be a leader, has to make sure guys are in the right spot and they're doing the right things. It's a hard job, but I think all of his teammates respect Jameer enough to know he can do the job."
This story originally appeared in the January issue of Magic Magazine. Get your favorite Magic fan a subscription to Magic Magazine! To subscribe call 1-877-841-7070 or e-mail subscription.service@skies.com and specify you want Magic Magazine. A one-year subscription is $18.95 and two-year is just $24.95.
