A little-known point guard from Woodland Hills, California's Taft High School, Mark Jackson Jr. was mysteriously ushered into the soap opera known as Louisville basketball last night via George Goode's Twitter feed:
Everybody follow one of the newest cards he's gonna play for us this year
@themarkjr
Go ahead and Google Mark Jackson Jr., I'll wait.
/Plants Oleander in back yard
//Smokes cigar while drinking cheap bourbon
Yeah...so while there's myriad stories and videos about Mark Jackson Sr., there's little to nothing written in virtual ink about Junior. After debating whether or not to fabricate stats and accolades, I popped an Excedrin, drank 2 cups of coffee and focused my entire being on Google's search engine.
The results: he recently played on an Adidas-sponsored (ADIDAS SNEAKERS ARE SO MUCH BETTER THAN NIKE'S. SRSLY. OK MAYBE NOT, BUT AT LEAST THEY'RE NOT REEBOK, SMH) AAU team named Pump n Run Elite, plays point guard, stands somewhere around 6'4" & 210 lbs and played well enough in an April 2010 AAU tournament to be named to the Elite Division All-Tournament Team. At Taft High School, Jackson also played alongside DeAndre Daniels, a 5-star recruit who recently decommitted from Texas and is set to receive $200K from UK if he can get qualified as part of the 2010 class.
What he lacks in over-analyzed internet hype, he more than makes up for in basketball pedigree. His father, Mark Jackson Sr., the 1988 NBA Rookie of the Year, was never the best player on his team but the former Pitino-coached New York Knick point guard dished out enough dimes to end his career as the #2 all time assists leader in the NBA. Jackson Sr. was the type of floor general and locker room leader you'd want running your team.
Jackson's uncle (Sr.'s younger brother) Troy Jackson is one of my favorite Cardinal players of my youth; "Dad, if that huge guy dunks, will it break the goal?" He didn't play much for Denny Crum in the late 90s but he was hilariously exciting to watch. Better known as Escalade of AND1 Mixtape Tour fame, Troy was no Shaq but he made a career out of perfecting the aesthetic advantage of being the biggest guy on the court and we can respect that.
Welcome to Louisville, internet ninja Mark Jackson, Jr.
Update: He's a walk-on (per The Demling's Twitter feed)