Jerome Keith James (born November 17, 1975) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. Originally from

Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

, James played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for the Florida A&M Rattlers for three seasons and was the national leader in blocks per game in the 1997–98 season, his junior year. James declared for the

1998 NBA draft The 1998 NBA draft took place on June 24, 1998, at General Motors Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This draft helped turn around four struggling franchises: the Dallas Mavericks, the Sacramento Kings, the Boston Celtics, and the Tor ...

after his junior year, and the

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Confere ...

selected James in the second round of the draft. Over the course of his career, he has played for the Kings, Seattle SuperSonics and

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the Na ...

. He has also played for

KK Budućnost Podgorica KK, K.K., kK, k.k., or other sequences of two k's with or without punctuation may refer to: Arts and media *KK, the production code for the 1967 ''Doctor Who'' serial ''The Faceless Ones'' * KK (song), "KK" (song), a 2014 song by Wiz Khalifa * K ...

and the

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters is an American Exhibition game, exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, entertainment, and comedy in their style of play. Over the years, they have played more than 26,000 exhibition games in 124 ...

Early life and college years

James was born and raised in the neighborhood of Northview Hills

, one of ten children. His father Jessie was a Port Of Tampa

longshoreman A dockworker (also called a longshoreman, stevedore, docker, wharfman, lumper or wharfie) is a waterfront manual laborer who loads and unloads ships. As a result of the intermodal shipping container revolution, the required number of dockworke ...

and his mother Ruth, a Hillsborough County school teacher. After graduating from the Pentecostal Church of God Christian Academy of Winter Haven in 1993, James worked driving delivery trucks for Sunny Florida Dairy and also part-time at a local feed lot in the Tampa Bay Area and learned the meaning of hard work from his father. A friend of James's mother saw James playing pickup basketball at a community center and called Ron Brown, coach of the

Florida A&M University Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. ...

Rattlers basketball team. Brown came and saw James's basketball skills and immediately offered James an athletic scholarship to Florida A&M. James

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

the 1994–95 season and played for Florida A&M from 1995 to 1998. In an interview with ''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is an American daily newspaper based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891, ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region. The Seattle Time ...

'', James said that meeting

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), commonly known as Shaq ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program ''Inside the NBA''. He is a and Center (basketball), center ...

at an

Orlando Magic The Orlando Magic are an American professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. The Magic compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (NB ...

practice inspired him to pursue a professional basketball career. With Florida A&M, James played 81 games with career averages of 16.0 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 4.48 blocks, with 49.5% on field goal attempts. In his junior season (1997–98), James led NCAA Division I basketball with 4.63 blocks per game. James was an All- MEAC selection in his sophomore and junior seasons. One class short of a

pre-law In the United States and Canada, pre-law (or prelaw) refers to any course of study taken by an undergraduate in preparation for study at a law school. The American Bar Association (ABA) requires law schools to admit only students with an accredi ...

degree, James declared for the

after his junior season.

Professional career

Harlem Globetrotters and Sacramento Kings (1998–2000)

The

selected James in the second round as the 36th overall pick in the

. Due to the NBA lockout, James played for the

in the fall of 1998 in a nine-country tour of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. James joined the Kings once the NBA lockout ended in 1999. Playing 16 games for the Kings as a reserve, James averaged 1.5 points and 1.1 rebounds. James sat out the entire season due to a knee injury. The Kings waived James on October 20, 2000.

KK Budućnost and ASVEL Villeurbanne (2000–2001)

For the 2000–01 season, James played 10 games for

KK Budućnost KK Budućnost (, ), currently known as Budućnost VOLI () for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball Sports club, club based in Podgorica, Montenegro. The club competes in Montenegrin Basketball League and Adriatic League. It is a par ...

of the

YUBA League The YUBA League was the top-tier men's professional basketball league in Serbia and Montenegro (previously FR Yugoslavia). Founded in 1992 and folded in 2006, it was run by the Basketball Federation of Serbia and Montenegro. The name ''YUBA Le ...

with 12.1 points and 6.7 rebounds per game and was part of the 2001 league championship team. James later signed with

ASVEL Basket ASVEL Basket, currently known as LDLC ASVEL for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional basketball team located in the commune of Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon, France. The club, which is the basketball section of the ASVEL multi-sports ...

of the French

LNB Pro A LNB may refer to: Sport * Liga Nacional de Baloncesto, a professional basketball league in the Dominican Republic * Liga Nacional de Básquetbol, an Argentine basketball league * Liga Nacional de Básquetbol (Paraguay), Liga Nacional de Básquetb ...

. Competing with ASVEL in the LNB playoffs, James averaged 9.5 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2 blocks.

Seattle SuperSonics (2001–2005)

On September 5, 2001, James returned to the NBA and signed with the Seattle SuperSonics. In the season, James played 56 games with 40 starts and averaged 5.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 0.4 steals and scored on 49.1% of field goal attempts. James also led the team in blocks with 86. James has averaged 4.3 points and 3.1 rebounds per game in 358 career games (180 games started). James played well for the Seattle SuperSonics during the

2005 NBA playoffs The 2005 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 2004–05 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs defeating the Eastern Conference champion Detroit P ...

, averaging 12.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 11 games against the Kings and

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

New York Knicks (2005–2009)

After the 2004–05 season, James signed a 5-year, $30 million free-agent contract with the Knicks on the strength of an outstanding performance in the 2005 playoffs in which he greatly exceeded his regular-season statistics. He arrived at his first training camp out of shape and in his first season he only averaged 3.1 points and 2.1 rebounds in 9 minutes per game. James missed much of the season due to injury and when he was not injured, he frequently played insignificant minutes. James was suspended on January 2, 2006, for not being prepared to practice. James is often cited as one of many questionable signings by Knicks general manager

Isiah Thomas Isiah Lord Thomas III ( ; born April 30, 1961), also known as "Zeke", is an American former professional basketball player who is head coach of the Saginaw Soul of the Basketball Super League, and also an analyst for NBA TV and Fox Sports. H ...

. He is also sometimes cited as an example of the " contract year phenomenon", where an athlete with impending free agency plays at a higher level than he ever has before, only to return to his normal level of play once he signs a new long-term contract. Chris Mannix of ''Sports Illustrated'' wrote "James was a chronic underachiever who cashed in on a brief moment of excellence". In the

2007–08 NBA season The 2007–08 NBA season was the 62nd season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Boston Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 131–92 to win the 2008 NBA Finals, four games to two. The 2007 NBA draft was held on June 28, 2007, a ...

he played in only two games (January 18 and 21) for a total of five minutes, while earning a salary of $5.8 million. James made his only field goal shot and two

free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

s of the season at Washington. He played another 2 games the following season, scoring 6 points, but suffered a season-ending torn Achilles tendon injury. On February 19, 2009, James was traded by the Knicks along with Tim Thomas and Anthony Roberson to the

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded on January 16 ...

in exchange for Larry Hughes. James never played any minutes for the Chicago Bulls due to injury. He was waived by the Bulls shortly before the 2010 playoffs.

Puerto Rico

James returned to professional basketball in 2012, signing with the Caciques de Humacao of the Puerto Rican BSN league on February 28. In 7 games, James made 43% of field goal attempts and averaged 9.1 points and 7.4 rebounds. James returned to Puerto Rico in 2015, signing with Atenienses de Manatí. He was released by Atenienses on March 18 but stuck around with the club for a further three games pending the arrival of Ekene Ibekwe.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

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Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

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Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

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, 51 , , 16 , , 15.0 , , .478 , , .000 , , .587 , , 4.2 , , .5 , , .2 , , 1.6 , , 5.4 , - , align="left" , , align="left" ,

, 65 , , 24 , , 15.2 , , .498 , , .000 , , .660 , , 3.5 , , .5 , , .3 , , .9 , , 5.0 , - , align="left" , , align="left" ,

, 80 , , 80 , , 16.6 , , .509 , , .000 , , .723 , , 3.0 , , .2 , , .3 , , 1.4 , , 4.9 , - , align="left" , , align="left" ,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, 45 , , 9 , , 9.0 , , .463 , , .000 , , .625 , , 2.0 , , .3 , , .1 , , .5 , , 3.0 , - , align="left" , , align="left" ,

, 41 , , 11 , , 6.7 , , .418 , , .000 , , .556 , , 1.6 , , .1 , , .1 , , .4 , , 1.9 , - , align="left" , , align="left" ,

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, 2 , , 0 , , 5.0 , , .375 , , .000 , , .000 , , 1.5 , , .0 , , .5 , , .5 , , 3.0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 358 , , 180 , , 13.3 , , .485 , , .000 , , .617 , , 3.1 , , .3 , , .3 , , 1.1 , , 4.3

Playoffs

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1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

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2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

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, 5 , , 1 , , 14.0 , , .391 , , .000 , , .000 , , 2.4 , , .8 , , .0 , , 1.0 , , 3.6 , - , align="left" ,

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

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, 11 , , 11 , , 26.8 , , .514 , , .000 , , .767 , , 6.8 , , .5 , , .5 , , 1.8 , , 12.5 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 17 , , 12 , , 21.7 , , .493 , , .000 , , .722 , , 5.2 , , .5 , , .4 , , 1.5 , , 9.4

Personal

James's son Dallas James played basketball for four seasons at South Carolina State from 2020 to 2024, and transferred to

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

for the 2024–25 season.

References

External links

ESPN.com profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Jerome 1975 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in France American expatriate basketball people in Montenegro ASVEL Basket players Baloncesto Superior Nacional players Basketball players from Tampa, Florida Caciques de Humacao players Centers (basketball) Florida A&M Rattlers basketball players Harlem Globetrotters players KK Budućnost players New York Knicks players Sacramento Kings draft picks Sacramento Kings players Seattle SuperSonics players American men's basketball players 21st-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen