Photo courtesy of Visions by Jeff/Jeffrey Armstrong
By David Cordova
In the tri-state area, point guards are very revered. Those are the players that march to the beat of their own drum and also direct the other four players on the court with them. There are the flashy ones who can score and make highlight-reel plays and then the ones that the position regularly by just getting their teammates involved.
Jordan Walker is one player that embodies both of those types of guards. The 5-foot-11 point guard out of the Long Island suburb of Fort Washington, New York, is one of the most prominent point guards in the metro area.
Whenever he’s in the game, the team that he’s playing against is in for a long night. Not only does he have plenty of skills in his arsenal, but he also has some quickness and is definitely a good shooter.
When asked about his style of play, he replied. “I like to play up and down, I love to use the pick & roll, I feel like I make good decisions off of the pick & roll, and I’m a facilitator, I score when I need to and get my teammates involved.”
“I want to be the best at everything I do, so whether it comes to school or any type of scoring, I want to be the best,” says Walker. “So whenever I step on the court, I want to be the best, I want everyone to know I’m the best.”
Walker started out his high school years at national powerhouse Long Island Lutheran in Brookville, New York, but received a minimal amount of playing time due to the Crusaders’ vast amount of talent. “It was definitely a bumpy road, I didn’t really play a lot at LuHi, I thought I should’ve,” says Walker about his time there, ” But it definitely humbled me and it helped me on my road to success.”
As a junior, Walker transferred across state lines to The Patrick School, which gave him a chance to shine early on. As a junior, he averaged 9.7 points per game for the Celtics. But then this past season, he stepped up his game by averaging 11.9 points and 4.8 assists per game, as he led The Patrick School to the promised land, a New Jersey Tournament of Champions title, a 29-4 record and a No. 12 national ranking in the USA Today poll.
Walker driving to the hole in the state playoffs against Teaneck. (Photo courtesy of Visions by Jeff/Jeffrey Armstrong)
Throughout his senior season, he also displayed some big performances, such as having a near-triple double at the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Massachussets against Pace Academy of Georgia, when he produced 15 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds. Then against Linden, a big-time public school in the state, he added 31 points and seven assists. It seemed as if the bigger the game, the better Walker played.
“It’s been tremendous,” says Walker about his time in a Celtics uniform, “Sitting behind Bryce Aiken the first year, learning so much from him, working out with him all the time, to me taking over the show and being a point guard and winning the TOC, it’s been tremendous.”
On winning the Tournament of Champions: “It felt great, I’ve never really won anything like that in my entire life and to win a whole entire state. It was crazy, it was unbelievable.”
Walker has also been involved with the basketball conglomerate, the Jelly Fam, which involves players such as Teaneck guards Ja’Quaye James and Robert Morris commit Leondre Washington and St. Raymond’s (NY) guard Isaiah Washington, who is bound for the University of Minnesota in the fall. This crew of guards are known for doing a particular layup called the “Jelly,” which is styled after a layup that was once done by NBA Hall of Famer George Gervin. But Walker says it’s much more than that.
“Jelly Fam, you already know, that’s the brotherhood,” says Walker about the group, “Everybody thinks it’s a layup or something like that, but it’s really a family, we’re really all brothers.”
Last summer, he played for two teams on the AAU circuit, the New York Lightning on the Nike EYBL circuit, and the Southern Stampede, another Nike EYBL program based in Atlanta, Georgia.
When asked about the experience with both he replied, “Playing with the Lightning was a great experience, I played EYBL for the first time in my life. I learned a lot from Shandue McNeill and Dana Dingle. But then I ended up going to Southern Stampede with Cory Underwood, playing with them was a really great experience, playing with Collin Sexton (McDonald’s All-American, Alabama commit) and Al Durham (Indiana commit), going against them in practice really made me better.”
For awhile, it seemed as if Walker would go the prep school route and reclassify into the Class of 2018, but on May 1st, all of those thoughts were deflated, when he made his collegiate choice by announcing that he would commit to Seton Hall.
Walker became the sixth member of the Celtics’ senior class to commit to a Division I school, which included McDonald’s All-American Nick Richards (Kentucky), Marcus McClary (Monmouth), Jamir Harris (Minnesota) and Buay Koka and Bul Ajang (Tulane).
When asked about why he chose the Hall, he said, “Well, they’ve been recruiting me for awhile now, I like the way they play and their style of play fit mines.”
Walker is the fifth player to be signed in the 2017 Seton Hall recruiting class, alongside Myles Cale, Darnell Brodie, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Romaro Gill. He comes to a program that went 21-10 and made their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance. Next year, he will be competing for time with junior Khadeen Carrington and freshman Myles Powell.
But his goals for his freshman year are something that he strives to attain, “I hope to start, I definitely hope to start, take over the reins and get everybody involved and still get myself going.”
Over the weekend, at the Hoops Showdown at the Bronx River Community Center in the South Bronx, he did a Kemba Walker- like step-back move and then made a shot to win the title game for 2G’z. When you’re a player of a diminutive size, the world overlooks you. But this young player, has the heart of a lion, and will play bigger than his size.
This fall, expect to see Jordan Walker doing the “jelly” at the Prudential Center. But when the big conference games in the Big East start up, expect big performances from him in a Pirates uniform.
Highlights of Jordan Walker:
Courtesy of Hoop Major Media.
Courtesy of East Coast Hoops.
Courtesy of NJ Hoop Recruit.
Courtesy of NJ Sports Scene.
Courtesy of Hoop Major Media.
Courtesy of Hoop Major Media.
Courtesy of Ballislife.
Courtesy of Hoop Major Media.
Courtesy of NJ Hoop Recruit.
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