It was April 3, 2009 and 36 buses left the Penn State University campus in College Station, near Philadelphia, to head into midtown Manhattan and take Madison Square Garden over. The NIT Final, the National Invitation Tournament, a tournament that has known better days but retains its charm, was going to be played that night. Penn State is a college with a body of nearly 100,000 students where football is a religion. But that day in New York even Joe Paterno, the legendary football coach (since deceased), showed up to support the basketball team. Penn State has won 50 national titles in different sports: only four universities boast more. Ed De Chellis was the coach (now he’s coaching Navy). On the court, there was also a 20-year old kid from Kentucky: Jeff Brooks.
Brooks was not yet the Nittany Lions star, that he would become two years later when his average scoring would rise to 13.1 points per game and his rebounds per game jumped to 6.4. He was a role player, but a useful one. In the second half he made a three of great value: Penn State won 69-63 against Baylor, a university situated inWaco, Texas, whose leader was the 22-year old Curtis Jerrells. So this is where they met for the first time on a basketball court. Brooks, the new Olimpia power forward, a multidimensional player, and Jerrells, the Wild-Card in Milan. That night, Brooks won, coming off the bench, 4 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks. Jerrells was one of Baylor’s stars: he scored 14 points with six assists. From now on they will play together.Jeff Brooks comes from Louisville, where racehorses are the local passion but only after the college basketball team, divided by a tremendous rivalry from the University of Kentucky, in Lexington. Brooks, however, was not a top prospect, back then. At Doss High School in Louisville, he had emerged in his junior season, gaining national attention during the several camps he attended the following summer. He chose Penn State over Arkansas. He won the NIT title in 2009 on that historic night of exodus to Madison Square Garden then exploded as a senior appearing in the radar of some NBA teams. But a good year was too little to get real consideration. Thus began his journey in the European basketball, circuit. In Italy in particular. He started from Jesi, Stefano Cioppi was the coach.
“Playing high school basketball and college basketball, the goal was always the NBA – he says – but there is basketball outside the NBA and that is what I found. And it found me, too! I wouldn’t trade my experience for the world, to be in the situation that I am right now. I have been to great cities, met great people, played with and against great players and coaches. I really enjoy what I do and am very blessed to be here. Every year is a new adventure. Every year I come back over and it is a new journey, to see what I got and if I can still do this, if I am talented enough to play against some of the best players in the world who are not in the NBA. The word that you said is ‘blessed’ and that is what I am. It is a key word for me,”, he says.
“Playing high school basketball and college basketball, the goal was always the NBA – he says – but there is basketball outside the NBA and that is what I found. And it found me, too! I wouldn’t trade my experience for the world, to be in the situation that I am right now. I have been to great cities, met great people, played with and against great players and coaches. I really enjoy what I do and am very blessed to be here. Every year is a new adventure. Every year I come back over and it is a new journey, to see what I got and if I can still do this, if I am talented enough to play against some of the best players in the world who are not in the NBA. The word that you said is ‘blessed’ and that is what I am. It is a key word for me,”, he says.
After Jesi, he played three more years in Italy, first in Cantù marking his EuroLeague debut, then in Caserta with big numbers, finally in Sassari with the return to the EuroLeague and the Italian hat-trick, mostly against Olimpia. One thing that he has shown to be able to do after that success in the NIT was to win again: the Supercup in Cantù, the Supercup in Sassari, the Italian Cup and the Italian championship. Then he spent one year in Saratov and two years in Malaga with another great triumph, the 2017 Eurocup against Valencia, the success that allowed Unicaja to return to the EuroLeague for a season. He is a team player, with long arms, an athletic guy who can defend in many different areas, with a realiable shot even from three. Versatility has always been its forte.
“Work and trying to understand basketball in the European mindset, along with my American mindset is the key. What I mean by this is that we have these two different types of basketball, American and European, and I try to balance out the two by being aggressive, but also knowing about team ball, making the extra pass, helping on defense… things like that. I learned that in the last few years, I don’t think I was the greatest defensive player coming out of college, but I think I got so much better because of my attention to details and my desire to be a good defender. All those things came with me maturing, being over here in Europe and taking every team that I played in as a new experience, a new challenge, a new opportunity to learn. This is why I think I am the player that I am today. I feel like I am a very good player who knows basketball. I am athletic, but that is not the only thing that I bring to the table. I try to learn every day and work hard every day in practices, and I am going to continue to do that.” And now it’s time to do the same in Olimpia.
