By Patrick Hayes

The inspiration behind the Jermaine Jackson Community Center in Mt. Clemens, Mich., was simple.

“I just love kids, man,” said Jermaine Jackson, a standout basketball player at Detroit Finney and the University of Detroit who played professionally in the NBA and overseas. “I hate to see kids misused or mistreated, and I just wanted to have a place where kids would have a healthy, safe environment.”

As a kid with little direction growing up in inner-city Detroit, Jackson credits the Cannon Community Center as having a positive influence on his life.

“If I didn’t have Cannon, there’s no telling where I’d be,” Jackson said. “Cannon was our life.”

Cannon Community Center was closed in 2006 due to budget cuts by the city of Detroit. This is the first community center that Jackson has opened himself, but he hopes to have many all over Michigan some day, both in cities and in suburbs.

“I’m planning to get more centers,” he said. “I want kids to see community centers wherever they go, like they see McDonald’s. I want to be able to bring kids in not just for sports, but for tutoring, after school programs, art classes, dance classes, cheerleading, you name it.”

Although Jackson’s passion is working with kids of all ages, backgrounds and interests, his basketball success gives him instant credibility with young, aspiring athletes who hope to play collegiately or professionally some day. He’s more than willing to share his vast knowledge and experiences in the game, but those he trains at the Jermaine Jackson Academy quickly learn that with that training comes brutal honesty.

“I train these kids as if they were my own,” he said. “But I’m also not gonna half ass it. I’m gonna make them work. I want to get to know these kids as people first, get to know their families and I want them to know me, my approach and my expectations. I want them to know to expect to work hard and be consistent every day here, and that’s not just about basketball. You have to consistently be a model citizen on and off the court every day, you have be a student of the game and you have to surround yourself with the right people. You have to be like a horse, always looking straight ahead.”

Jackson’s own experiences in the game shaped his philosophy. In high school, he considered himself a football player and didn’t play for the basketball team until his junior year, after several people prodded him to do it. Encouragement certainly played a role in motivating him to play, but one detractor, in particular, helped nudge him towards basketball too.

“In the gym one day before my junior year, there was a girls coach who told me I was too scared to play and that I wouldn’t make the team anyway,” Jackson said. “Well, later that season, I’m the starting point guard and going up against (former Detroit Southwestern star and current Michigan assistant) Bacari Alexander. I scored on a breakaway dunk on my first play in my first game, and it was on from there.”

Despite his on-court success in high school, Jackson still didn’t realize that he could be a college basketball player.

“I had no guidance,” Jackson said. “Everywhere I turned, I saw drug dealers. I wasn’t thinking about college yet.”

Jackson may not have been thinking about college, but colleges were certainly thinking about him. As a 6-foot-4, athletic, strong point guard, he was an intriguing prospect. That attention from coaches is when he first started to become aware of something he now talks with young people about all the time — the need to work as hard in the classroom as they do at basketball.

“Coaches would come to me asking, ‘What are your grades like?,’” Jackson said. “It was like they were speaking Chinese to me.”

One college coach, though, separated himself from the others — legendary University of Detroit coach Perry Watson.

“Coach Watson was the only coach who came to my school to help get me on the right path,” Jackson said. “He talked to me about getting my grades up, he checked up on me. I was like, ‘Damn, someone really cares about me.’ That’s why I committed to Detroit.”

Getting to college, however, was just the first step. Jackson had to continue working hard in the classroom, continue setting and reaching goals and he was pushed on the basketball court like he’d never been pushed before.

“At first, I was like, ‘Hell no! He (Watson) won’t even let me play my game,’” Jackson said. “I had to run the offense, I had to play defense, I had to set up shots for others. I was like, ‘I’m trying to get some shots for myself!.’ And everything was my fault — if Rashad Phillips was shooting too much or if Desmond Ferguson or Bacari Alexander were missing shots, it was my fault! In reality, coach Watson was probably the greatest thing that happened to me as a basketball player. He was teaching me the responsibilities of being a point guard and floor general. If you’re a point guard, you’re responsible for everything that goes right or wrong on the court. You control everything. Coach Watson is a true definition of a coach and father figure. He taught me how to be a father.”

Jackson had an impressive college career as one of the steadiest point guards in the country at Detroit. He averaged 11.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game while shooting 43 percent (including 36 percent from 3-point range) for his career and was known for his physical, tough defense. Although he wasn’t drafted out of college, he made the 1999-2000 Detroit Pistons roster as a rookie free agent. It is really rare for non-drafted players to make NBA rosters out of college. In Jackson’s case, it was no fluke, however.

Prior to getting that opportunity, being able to play against NBA players in Detroit in summers helped prepare him for training camp.

“I was going against guys like Jalen Rose, Howard Eisley, Voshon Lenard, Eric Snow and I was holding my own against them when I was in college,” Jackson said. “It gave me confidence that I could be a pro, and those guys gave good examples to follow. I used to look at Eric Snow and say, ‘this guy can’t shoot, how is he in the NBA?’ Well, he was a student of the game, he was a great defensive player and he understood how to play point guard and make other players better. I really took notice of that.”

By the time he got an invite to Pistons training camp, he was ready and didn’t want to let the opportunity to play for his hometown team slip away.

“I was running five miles a day and went into camp with the Pistons in the best shape of my life,” Jackson said. “I listened to what all those pros said, I got myself into great shape, and I made the team. It was like I was in Disney World, bro. I came from drinking sugar water and calling it Kool-Aid and putting water on my cereal to playing in the NBA, sitting on the same bench as Grant Hill and Jerry Stackhouse and Lindsey Hunter. How could I keep my composure? I’m still on a high from that experience.”

Jackson spent parts of five seasons in the NBA. Like in college with Watson, he got the opportunity to play for some coaching legends, including Larry Brown when he was with the Philadelphia 76ers and Lenny Wilkens when he was coaching the Toronto Raptors and New York Knicks.

“Larry Brown, Lenny Wilkens, Perry Watson … those guys all have one major thing in common: attention to detail,” Jackson said. “In practices with Larry Brown during five-on-five scrimmages, he would stop the game every time down and every time back to teach something or mention something. It was the same way with coach Wilkens and coach Watson, they were always teaching you, always trying to make you play the game better. A lot of players hate it, they get mad because coaches like that take you out of your comfort zone, but I understand what they were doing. They were trying to get you to see all aspects of the game at all times. The game is so much easier when you understand it.”

In addition to the NBA, Jackson has played in some of the top international leagues, including in Italy, Spain and Israel. He won the Italian Cup in 2004 with famed Italian club Benetton Treviso. He made an all-star team in Israel in 2012.

“A basketball and a pair of gym shoes has taken me all over the world, to places I’ve never imagined being able to go to,” Jackson said. “I want to help kids reach those same goals if they have them.”

When he’s working with young players, he tries to relay the concept of attention to detail. Sometimes, under-recruited players who work the hardest end up going further in basketball than higher profile prospects.

“A lot of guys working with young basketball players have hidden agendas,” Jackson said. “They give kids fools’ gold, then throw them away. It’s sad and it bothers me. They’re not teaching these kids anything and just stealing their time. Me, I tell the truth at all times. I will never tell a kid how good he is. I want to teach them, share my experiences, tell them things I did right and did wrong and be honest about the knowledge, commitment and work it takes to be successful in basketball. I love taking unknown players and helping them become known players.”

Jackson has worked with several young players of all ages in the state, including Michigan recruit Derrick Walton Jr. and Western Michigan recruit Connar Tava. Jackson also works with his own son, Jermaine Jackson Jr.

“My son is becoming such a student of the game,” Jackson said. “I’ll tell him how to do something in the gym, then he’ll say, ‘Coach, how about we do it this way?’ Then I’ll think about it, and he’s right. I’m hard on him, I get on him, sometimes we won’t talk on the ride home, but I’ll also hug him, we’ll eat dinner together and talk about the game as soon as we get home.”

Jackson takes a similar approach with all of the kids he works with, wanting to know more about them than just what they do on the basketball court.

“I go to their schools and check on their grades,” Jackson said. “Sometimes they run into me there and they’re surprised to see me. I learned that from Perry Watson.”

Because of his success in basketball and experience working with kids, Jackson has received coaching offers at the high school and college level. He’s torn, however, because although he loves coaching and teaching the game, he’s also committed to his academy and expanding his community centers.

“I feel like this is a gift God gave me, to work with these kids,” he said. “I would never say never about coaching, it’s always on my mind, but the path I’m on right now, I don’t want to lose. I would feel selfish if I had to leave behind these kids. This is something special.”

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The Jermaine Jackson Community Center is hosting a community event from 12-4 p.m. June 23. There will be live music, a petting zoo, face painting, basketball, hot dogs and refreshments, a free health screening and more. Jackson, Congressman Sander Levin and other local dignitaries will be in attendance. The center is located at 58 Orchard Street, Mount Clemens, Mich., between Northbound Gratiot and North River Road on the corner of Clemens and Orchard. For information, call (586) 630-025 or visit the website.