By: Sophie Ma

After being considered one of the greatest basketball players in UCLA history, Jaime Jaquez Jr. is beginning to once again prove his worth in a new team. Jaquez is confident that his past four years at UCLA will earn him a good place.

Nine teams have already brought him into workouts and all have seen his impressive endurance and large skill set. His extra years of practicing as well as his ability to score

Jaquez told The Times over the phone, “The feedback has been very positive… I think they’ve all been very impressed.”

Jaquez’s career has brought him to the Final Four as well as the Sweet 16 and resulted in a net score of 1,802 points.

“He played really hard, he competed his ass off, he made smart decisions with the ball,” An anonymous executive said about Jaquez.

Jaquez has been traveling much of the past month, in hopes of becoming one of UCLA’s highest picks.

Many also reminded Jaquez that he would become the next Mexican-American in the NBA’s history. Jaquez sees this as an opportunity to make his extended family proud.

“It’s just great for a guy like myself to represent a group that really hasn’t seen the light in the NBA,” Jaquez says, expressing that he hopes to inspire a new generation to give a shot in the NBA.

Clips of Jaquez have been shown on one of Mr. Beast’s channels, a Youtube star with over 160 million followers. Jaquez mentioned that he was surprised people saw it, saying, “I just thought it was funny.”

Additionally, Jaquez’s sister went to the same college as him and he’s sad to leave her. Gabriella is also a basketball player, the two had much fun on campus, as they saw each other almost every day.

By leaving the campus, Jaquez is not only saying goodbye to his sister but also saying goodbye to being a top player. While he was admired and thanked by students at UCLA, he now has to prove himself at a high enough level to be in the NBA.

Jaquez said, “I’m going to be back at the bottom, I’m a rookie now.”