Small Fish in a Big Pond: The story of Jason Ford

[damien]

This may be the wrong section, since the first couple of posts will be about him in college, but he will eventually be imported into DDS:PB2, so I figured I'd post this here that way y'all can make a love connection with Ford before he hits the NBA. :P

My name is Jason Ford, and I love basketball. I love the feeling of empowerment that the sport gives me, and how you can affect the game as much without the ball as you can with the ball. That makes me feel like fundamentals are truly important, rather than being something that you can get by without, like in many other sports. While a lot of people dream of being the big scorer who hits the clutch buzzer beaters, that isn't really for me. That draws too many eyes for my liking. Nah, I prefer to score every now and then, and to set up my teammates with well timed and anticipated passes.

I usually play point guard, but I can play at the other guard position if need be. My jump shot is okay, but I take care of the ball and try to get it to my teammates as smoothly as possible. I'm also a scrapper on defense; I love to get at the ball and guys generally have a hard time maneuvering around me when I encase them in my defensive cloak. My biggest thing is that I'm a burner on the court; guys tend to have trouble keeping up with me, and that often helps me drive into the lane. I just love to play the game, but I think people make too big a deal of it, and take the fun out of it all. In general, I just hate being watched, especially in a negative way; I prefer to be playing at the local court with my brother and my neighbors, although that usually attracted a lot of attention. I'm only 6 foot 2; I was the shortest of all of us, and yet I never had any trouble making a fool out of all of 'em, and people loved seeing that.

I love Big East basketball. Hands down, there is no other conference that I would ever want to play in. Having lived my life in Clearwater, Florida, I've been a fan of South Florida for all my life. I figured I wouldn't really be much of a prospect, so I picked my top 5 to be South Florida, Marquette, Rutgers, St. Johns and Villanova (just for s**ts and giggles). As the season wore on, though, I rose through the rankings, breaking into the top 200 as a 3 star prospect, and needless to say, I was shocked. Not only was I receiving calls from South Florida and Rutgers, but Georgetown, Syracuse, and even UConn! It was pretty damn surreal, to say the least. I immediately ruled out 'Cuse, though; I can't take the pressure of playing for a New York team. Georgetown was out too, since D.C. isn't a very safe area. So, I was down to two choices; was it going to be my local South Florida, or was I going to swallow my fears and go to the big name UConn where all eyes would be on me? I damn near had a mental breakdown just thinking about it, so I took it to a coin, and tails prevailed. South Florida, here I come!