Bill Parcells, the legendary football coach, comes from Englewood, New Jersey. John Travolta, he and his Saturday night fever, comes from Englewood. Jordan Theodore, the new Olimpia point-gaurd, comes from Englewood, just across the Hudson River, a city from where Manhattan looks so close you can almost touch the skyline, one tunnel away and yet it seems so unreachable. But in Englewood, Theodore was losing himself. Enter Carol, his mom. She sent him away, for the last two years of high school. She sent him to Paterson, to attend a Catholic school. “I think she saved my life,” said Jordan Theodore at ESPN. “I’ve been out of trouble, I’ve been disciplined, I’ve been back in line, I have worked hard on the court and in the classroom.”
Jordan Theodore attended Paterson for two years and became a relevant player, recruited by the best colleges of the East, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Illinois but he chose Seton Hall to stay in the area, “to allow my mother and grandfather to come and see me play.” He was recruited by Bobby Gonzalez, but before his junior year with the Pirates the coach was replaced by Kevin Willard. “The first two years I’ve been trying to learn the system,” says Theodore, who in his junior year has blossomed and established a strong bond with his new coach and his assistant Shaheen Holloway, another great playmaker produced by Seton Hall. Among his teammates there was Jeremy Hazell, who eventually played in Italy, in Bologna and Pesaro. Theodore played superbly in the last two seasons, was named in the All-conference team, set the new Seton Hall record for assists in a single season demolishing a record that lasted for about fifty years. He was invited to the Portsmouth NBA predraft camp where he played well. So when in the 2012 draft he was not selected the disappointment was huge.
He ended up to make his professional debut in Turkey, Antalya, then moved to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic when Antalya blocked him from transferring to Cedevita Zagreb. In 2013 he signed for Mersin in Turkey, two years, then moved to Bourg-en-Bresse in France and finlly landed in Germany to play for the Fraport Skyliners with whom he found his vocation: the winning point-guard. In 2016 he won the Fiba Europe Cup beating Varese in the championship game, 66-62. Under three points, he scored the three that tied the game and then fired another three, was fouled and made all the three free throws. In Turkey he has done even better: it won the Turkey Cup with Banvit edging all four Istanbul teams competing in the EuroLeague including Efes in the final game (he was awarded the MVP trophy), then led Banvit to the Final Four of Fiba Champions League making the qualifying field goal against Ludwisburg. Banvit had lost by five in Germany and needed to prevail by six. Here is Theodore’s coast-to-coast.
Banvit did not win the Champions League, it lost the final game in Gran Canaria against the locals, but Theodore was named the competition MVP. He was fourth in scoring with 16.2 points on average and was the best in assists with 7.7 per game, numbers that have been duplicated in the Turkish league. In EuroLeague he will be a rookie for Olimpia but last year in the eight games he played against the EuroLeague four Turkish teams he averaged 20.7 points and 6.2 assists per game finishing with a 5-3 record (only Fenerbahce beat his team twice). He scored 34 points against Galatasaray and 32 against Darussafaka winning both games.
