By: Serena Xiao
Jaime Jaquez Jr. has recently graduated from UCLA, where he played basketball for four years. He was a campus superstar. He now wants to join the NBA, but he has to start from the bottom and again prove himself to be a worthy player.
When Jaquez first entered college, he had to prove himself on the basketball court to gain other students’ respect. Jaquez is confident that he’ll be able to prove that he’s good enough and based on his past achievements, he probably will. He’ll do anything to help his new team win. Nine teams have witnessed him playing basketball and were impressed by his skills. During a Pac-12 in a senior season, he placed eighth in UCLA’s all-time best scoring list.
“I feel really ready,” Jaquez said of moving on to the NBA. “I feel more prepared than ever, and I’m really looking at the four years and realize how much that’s prepared me for going into these workouts and really making an impact and talking to these GMs. I’m really seeing the payoff of my time at UCLA.”
One NBA executive said that teams may also be attracted to him because of his dependability. “He played really hard, he competed his ass off, he made smart decisions with the ball,” said the executive.
Juan Toscano-Anderson, a Mexican American professional basketball player, advised Jaquez to stay ready for the highs and lows when trying to make it in the NBA. Jaquez thinks this means he’s about to make his country proud. “It’s just great for a guy like myself to represent a group that really hasn’t seen the light in the NBA, and I think it’s just because a lot of Mexicans don’t play basketball,” Jaquez said. “I’m just trying to inspire a new generation to maybe give it a shot and see if they like it and enjoy the sport as much as I do.”
Jaquez’s hard work throughout his college years is about to make him the second UCLA player drafted with an undergraduate degree and, if he’s selected in the first round, the first Bruin senior taken that high in the rankings since Darren Collison in 2009. Getting drafted will lead to more work, but Jaquez is willing to do that work. “I’m a winner,” Jaquez said. “I’ll take what I learned from UCLA and apply that and try to bring all that knowledge and experience to a team and try to help an organization try and win some games.
Jaquez says he doesn’t regret his college time. However, he might be missing his sister Gabriela. During the one year they spent together, they saw each other almost daily and Jaquez attended as many of his sister’s games as he could. However, his sister found it harder to make eye contact, as Jaquez had to sit in the back to avoid fans seeing him and disturbing him while he was watching the game. Jaquez and Gabriela were both amazing basketball players, and the entire school knew that they were the same family. When Jaquez graduated, Gabriela was also left to continue the family legacy.
Jaquez is excited to be in the NBA. “I’m going to be back at the bottom,” Jaquez said. “I’m a rookie now.”