SUNO basketball player making history

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - “He gets 25 points and 25 rebounds. Like it’s regular. And I keep telling him dude, that’s not regular what you’re doing is crazy,” said James Matthews III, SUNO’s head basketball coach.

Freshman Jamal ‘Tall’ Gibson, 26, is averaging 20 points and 16 rebounds for the SUNO Knights. But the only thing more unbelievable than his numbers is the fact that before this season, he had never played organized basketball.

“The kind of basketball I’ve been playing all my life, was kind of like street ball,” said Gibson.

That brand of basketball took him to a local adult’s league, where he met the man that would go on to be his assistant coach at SUNO. But when Gibson laced up his shoes that night, he had no clue his life was about to change forever.

“We ended up playing against him. But I didn’t know he was the assistant coach until after the game. He came and hollered at me and he was like, you play ball and stuff like that. I’m like, No, I don’t play ball. You know, I’m just doing this, like, you’re doing it. To get some runs in. And then he went to telling me that he was the assistant coach over here, and then he went to asking me did I go to school and I was like, No, I ain’t even graduate high school,” said Gibson.

Which, initially sounded like a “tall tale” to head coach James Matthews.

“My first reaction was boy, you crazy. There’s no way some kid playing in some adult league is going come in here and play organized basketball,” said Coach Matthews.

But as soon as Gibson stepped on campus, it didn’t take long to change Coach Matthew’s mind.

“I’ve got the mindset, like I just know. It doesn’t matter who I play against, where we’re at, what type of experience you got and I’ve got, I just got that dog in me. So I’m gonna make it happen regardless, no matter who I play. So I always had that mindset. So I knew I was coming here to stand on business,” said Gibson.

Before he developed the hunger he shows on the court, he fed that with a form of art. After dropping out of high school, Jamal Gibson became a tattoo artist…using his creativity to help express himself, better than words ever could.

“I used to, could not work for nobody, like, you know, every job I had, I quit in like two weeks, maybe a week, sometimes if I lasted that long. But, you know, what motivated me was like, the way I found out how to do tattoos. And then the way I started making money from tattoos, like that kind of motivated me to give that image to myself. I felt like I owed that to myself. I want to say it was like life changed, you know, so, me putting these tattoos all over my body was kind of like the represent that,” said Gibson.

That motivation only grew, when Gibson became a father.

“Having a kid makes you go harder in anything you’re doing in life, because you’re doing it for them, basically. I gotta get where I’m going for my kid. That’s how I look at it. And that’s how I look at it when I’m on the court. Maybe that’s why I do what I do out there, now that I think about it,” said Gibson.

Gibson may have never pictured himself as a college basketball player before getting to SUNO. But now, he’s painting a very clear picture of where he wants to be next.

I see myself in the league. I aint lying, I see myself in the league. If I keep doing what I’m doing, yeah definitely the league, said Gibson with a smile.

“We talk about the league a lot, right? Because that’s a goal of his and usually kids that come to this school or smaller schools. That’s not really realistic, right? This kid is more than realistic. Like he’s a special special talent. This is his first time playing organized basketball. So you’re really seeing the floor. This guy’s ceiling is so much higher,” said Coach Matthews.

Coach Matthews says that in his ten years here, he’s never seen a player like Jamal Gibson, and if his dream of playing in the league comes true, he’d be the first SUNO player to ever make it to the NBA.

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