Jameer Nelson Sr. played for 14 years in the NBA, but he’s still best known for his heroics at St. Joseph’s, where he led the Hawks to an undefeated regular season, a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and won national Player of the Year honors. And that was, wait, how many years ago, now?
College basketball fans were forced to try and remember last week when Nelson’s son, Jameer Jr., earned a slice of the national spotlight when Delaware won the Colonial Athletic Association tournament and earned a spot in the NCAA tournament.
“That is one thing everybody is telling me,” Nelson Jr. told Sporting News. “You are making me feel old.”
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Nelson Sr.’s college heroics took place in 2004, as a senior in his fourth season at St. Joseph’s (remember those days?). Nelson Jr. was born while his dad was starring in college, and suddenly here he is as the leading scorer for a team making its own way to the NCAA tournament.
Following Delaware’s 59-55 win over UNC-Wilmington, Jameer Jr. and Sr. had a moment that quickly went viral.
There's no script for this..."Best Thing I Saw Today"@DelawareMBB is headed to the Big Dance! pic.twitter.com/3RpUudVlUP
— #BlueHens (@UDBlueHens) March 9, 2022
“What’s funny is, my teammates and I were talking about it, like, ‘are you going to cry if we win?’” Nelson Jr. said. “My dad ended up crying, too.”
Nelson didn’t think his father was coming to the game. As assistant general manager of the G-League’s Delaware Blue Coats, his work schedule has not allowed him to be a consistent presence in the stands this season. He missed the first two games of the CAA tournament and Nelson Jr. assumed he wouldn’t make the championship game.
“I texted him before the game and that was it,” he said. “Then I saw him and my mom at tip-off sitting across from our bench.”
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Nelson had 10 points and six rebounds as the Hens locked up their first NCAA bid since 2014, then went over to his family to celebrate.
“It just felt like all the work I put in, all the stuff I went through, it just all felt worth it in that moment,” he said.
Nelson Jr. was a baseball player growing up while his father played for the Orlando Magic for the first 10 years of his career. His dad, who was also a star baseball player in high school, introduced baseball to his son. But after Jameer Jr. 's sophomore year of high school, he decided to concentrate on basketball because baseball’s pace was too slow. He began basketball training with his father and cousin Josh Sharkey, who went on to play at Samford.
Those summer sessions turned into D1 offers, and Nelson Jr. initially committed to St. Joseph’s before his father’s former coach, Phil Martelli, was fired. Nelson Jr. went to George Washington, and transferred midway through his sophomore year to Delaware. He was joining a deep Delaware squad that was returning all five starters, but Nelson believed he would find his playing time.
Indeed, Nelson has started every game this season and is averaging a team-best 13.7 points and 5 rebounds while shooting 51 percent from the floor and 37 percent from three. The Hens were the fifth-seed in the CAA tournament after being picked first in the CAA preseason poll, but they found their stride late and beat the regular-season co-champs Towson and UNC-W in the semifinals and the final.
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“We felt like we had the most talent in the league,” Nelson said. “We felt that way throughout the year. We lost some games and things didn’t go our way, but we just stayed after it and stayed connected.”
Delaware has at least one more chance to stay in the national spotlight when it takes on second-seeded Villanova on Friday. Ironically, the Wildcats share Philadelphia with Nelson's father's St. Joseph's team.
“It is another opportunity for this team to show what we can do,” Nelson said. “We are going to go out there trying to win. We are just excited to have this opportunity.
