Pride of Chester: Why Jameer Nelson got his degree
Fourteen years after leaving Saint Joseph’s, Chester’s Jameer Nelson returns and earns his degree
PHILADELPHIA » In a building where his retired number hangs from the ceiling, where the locker room bears his name, where he once ruled college basketball, Jameer Nelson will be applauded again Saturday. There, where he once helped run a winning streak to 27, he will wear a cap, a gown and what John Wooden once called the best smile in the game. There in the Hagan Arena, he will officially become a member of the Saint Joseph’s University’s graduating class of 2018. Make that streak 28. “It means a lot,” Nelson said. “I wanted to do this for the city of Chester, for Saint Joseph’s University, for my family and for my closest friends.”
Nelson did OK financially since leading the Hawks to the Elite Eight in 2004 as the consensus national player of the year. He earned $64,000,000 in the NBA. Sixty-four. Million. So when he says he wanted to earn a sociology degree for all of the right reasons, there is no reason to doubt that his desire was as pure as his mesmerizing court vision.
Nelson just finished his 14th NBA season, one that began for him in New Orleans and ended in Detroit, where he was a deep sub for a rickety team that wound up firing its coach. His contract has expired, making him a free agent. He will be 36 next season, but has always used the combination of physical blessings of a linebacker’s upper body and a highjumper’s spring to play bigger than his 6-0 program height. So he soon will do as he always has done in the summer and sweat through individual workouts to remain in peak condition. Some NBA team will call, for he still has value. But already he is looking beyond his playing career, thinking he may someday coach. And how could a verified grasp of sociology not help when trying to lead players? But what players? College players? Pros? High school kids, maybe someday, back at Chester High, where he was a state champion and the All-Delco Player of the Year as a senior in 2000?
“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s just something I thought about.”
He thought for years about earning his degree, something that he fell just short of when a series of NCAA Tournament challenges, trophy-acceptances, interviews and just, as he said, remembering that glorious era, “being Jameer Nelson,” robbed him of some study time. Since then, technology has changed, allowing him to face-time with professors during NBA off-days.
“This is definitely important to me,” Nelson said. “Growing up as a kid, I dreamed of going to college, because college can give you a better quality of life. It will help you develop as a better person. So you take those things you learned in college along with you.
“I have learned a lot here. I was taught how to be a teammate, how to be a pro, how to be a student. Being from Chester, you are not in the best school district. But when you come here to Saint Joe’s, you have so much support. I can’t even tell you how many tutors I had. So it was a struggle for me. But the most important thing for me was to get things done then, and to get things done now.”
Though he never had the opportunity to play for the 76ers, Nelson always kept a tie to the region. Often, he would host Orlando Magic teammates in Philadelphia, and for a few years would arrange for them to take batting practice before Phillies games. Invariably, Nelson would wear a Phillies jersey. His son, Jameer Nelson Jr., is enjoying an impressive playing career at The Haverford School. And Nelson’s semi-organized summer workouts at Haverford College, which were said to attract pro players from along the East Coast, were legendary.
Nelson has played in Orlando, Dallas, Boston, Denver, New Orleans and Detroit, averaging 11.3 points in the NBA, winning a spot in the 2008 All-Star Game. But he never lost touch with, or interest in, the Chester High basketball program or its legends. That includes Herman Harris, who recently earned his degree at the University of Arizona, 40 years after the conclusion of his career.
“(Coach) Keith (Taylor) had a good year this year,” Nelson said. “I follow it. Every game, I am trying to check in with the people who are my ears and eyes down there, especially when I am away.”
The Clippers were 199, which was good, if not the level that yielded eight state championships between 1983 and 2012. The situation, and the coaches, have changed. The legendary Fred Pickett died in 2014. Larry Yarbray was replaced in 2017 despite, like Nelson, having been a Daily Times Sports Figure of the Year. Philadelphia teams, private schools, new classifications, scholarships and charter schools have impinged on Chester’s basketball dominance.
“It’s never going to be a ‘down’ time,” Nelson said. “But the standard is so high in Chester that it makes it tough for the next coach and the next player as well.
“I talk to Larry all the time,” he added. “He’s doing well. He’s doing well. I didn’t understand why they let him go. I am obviously not involved in that process. But for a guy to win as much as he did and for a guy to send as many kids to college as he did, for me, it’s a big question mark. It’s not my decision. If it was my decision, it probably would have gone different. Both Keith and Larry have played a part in my life. So I am happy for Keith as well.”
As a point guard, Jameer Nelson always knew how to keep everyone involved. As a degree-holder in sociology, the streak continues.