Jhivvan Jameel Jackson Meléndez (born August 27, 1998) is a Puerto Rican-Panamanian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for Spirou of the

BNXT League The BNXT League, for sponsorship reasons the betFirst BNXT League, is a professional basketball league in Belgium and the Netherlands. The league is the first tier in both the Dutch and Belgian system, replacing the Dutch Basketball League, DBL a ...

. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the UTSA Roadrunners.

Early life and high school

Jackson began playing basketball at the age of five. He moved from his hometown of

Bayamón, Puerto Rico Bayamón (, ) is a Bayamón barrio-pueblo, city, Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality of Puerto Rico and suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan located in the northern coastal valley, north of Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, Aguas Buenas an ...

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

in seventh grade. He played four years of varsity basketball at Trinity High School in

Euless, Texas Euless ( ) is a city in Tarrant County, Texas, United States, and a suburb of Dallas and Fort Worth. Euless is part of the Mid-Cities region between Dallas and Fort Worth. In 2020 Census, the population of Euless was 61,032. The population of the ...

. As a freshman, Jackson was teammates with top

recruit __NOTOC__ Recruit can refer to: Military * Military recruitment * Recruit training, in the military * ''Rekrut'' (English: Recruit), a military recruit or low rank in German-speaking countries * Seaman recruit Books *''Le Réquisitionnaire'' (En ...

and future

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA) player

Myles Turner Myles Christian Turner (born March 24, 1996) is an American professional basketball player for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season for the Texas Longhorns men's basketball, Texas Longhorns befor ...

. In his senior season, he averaged 22 points, five rebounds, five assists and 2.8 steals per game. and also his olde brother Jalen Jackson He scored 52 points in a 92–91 overtime win over Denton Guyer High School in the playoffs after missing the two games previous with an injured ankle. Jackson was lightly recruited, his only

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

offers coming from

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

and UTSA, and was not rated by any major recruiting services. On October 16, 2016, he committed to play for UTSA, who discovered him at an all-star game in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

College career

As a freshman, Jackson was named

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

freshman of the year and Second Team All-Conference USA. He averaged 18.4 points per game to lead the team. Jackson tore his ACL at the end of his freshman season, cutting the year six games short. He missed the first three games of his sophomore season while recovering from the injury. He scored a career-high 46 points and hit a career-high eight three-pointers in a 96–88 overtime loss to

Western Kentucky Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state. ;Always included * The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recogniz ...

on January 31, 2019. As a sophomore, Jackson led Conference USA in scoring with 22.9 points per game on 38.6 percent shooting from the field, combining with

Keaton Wallace Keaton Wallace (born February 26, 1999) is an American professional basketball player for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA), on a two-way contract with the College Park Skyhawks of the NBA G League. He played college b ...

to form the highest scoring backcourt in Division I. Jackson was named to the First Team All-Conference USA. On December 21, Jackson scored 41 points in a 89–70 win over

Illinois State Illinois State University (ISU) is a Public university, public university in Normal, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University, it is the oldest public university in Illinois. The university emphasizes teaching and is reco ...

. He was subsequently named National Player of the Week by the

United States Basketball Writers Association The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) was founded in 1956 by National Collegiate Athletic Association director Walter Byers to serve the interests of journalists who cover college basketball. Scholarships The USBWA annually awa ...

(USBWA), becoming the first Conference USA player to win the award since its creation in 2009–10. On February 6, 2020, Jackson scored a season-high 45 points in an 85–81 overtime victory over

Old Dominion Old Dominion most commonly refers to: *The Old Dominion, a nickname for the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia ** Colony of Virginia *Old Dominion University, a public university in Norfolk, Virginia **Old Dominion Monarchs, the athletic teams represe ...

. Jackson scored 14 points in a 84–59 loss to

on March 4 and surpassed the 2,000 point mark. At the conclusion of the regular season, Jackson was named to the First Team All-Conference USA. As a junior, Jackson averaged 26.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game. He averaged 19.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game as a senior.

Professional career

On March 6, 2022, Jackson signed his first professional contract with

CB Menorca Club Bàsquet Menorca is a Spanish basketball club based in Mahón, Balearic Islands. History Bàsquet Menorca was founded in 2016 with the aim to reach again the professional basketball after the dissolution of former Liga ACB team Menorca Bàs ...

of the

LEB Plata The LEB Plata is the third basketball division of the Spanish basketball league system and the second basketball division organized by the Spanish Basketball Federation. Since 2019, three teams are promoted to LEB Oro and six teams are relegated t ...

. On August 29, 2022, he has signed with Spirou of the

National team career

Jackson was named to the Puerto Rico U18 team in the

2016 FIBA Americas Under-18 Championship The 2016 FIBA Americas Under-18 Championship for Men was an international basketball competition that was held in Valdivia, Chile from July 19–23, 2016. It was the tenth edition of the championship, and was the FIBA Americas qualifying tournamen ...

. He averaged 12.4 points and 3.6 rebounds per game in five games.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;", UTSA , 29 , , 9 , , 25.7 , , .431 , , .368 , , .768 , , 3.2 , , 1.8 , , 1.0 , , .1 , , 18.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;", UTSA , 29 , , 24 , , 30.8 , , .386 , , .351 , , .846 , , 4.1 , , 2.4 , , 1.2 , , .1 , , 22.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", UTSA , 32 , , 31 , , 34.5 , , .418 , , .354 , , .852 , , 5.6 , , 2.4 , , 1.4 , , .2 , , 26.8 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;", UTSA , 25 , , 24 , , 33.2 , , .468 , , .369 , , .784 , , 4.2 , , 3.4 , , 1.0 , , .3 , , 19.9 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 115 , , 88 , , 31.1 , , .421 , , .359 , , .818 , , 4.3 , , 2.5 , , 1.2 , , .2 , , 22.2

Personal life

Jackson's father, LeRoy Jackson, played college basketball in the early 1990s for Oregon State before playing for

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

and professionally in Puerto Rico and the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

. His grandfather,

Flor Meléndez Flor Meléndez Montañez (born January 12, 1947) is a Puerto Rican retired basketball player and current coach. He is a former head coach of Puerto Rico men's national basketball team, Puerto Rico’s men’s national basketball team, Argentina ...

, played for

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

at the 1968 Olympics and professionally in Puerto Rico. Meléndez coached the national teams of Puerto Rico,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and Panama as well as professional teams in

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. Jackson's name, Jhivvan, is derived from the

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

word, "Jeevan," meaning life.

References

External links

UTSA Roadrunners bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Jhivvan 1998 births Living people Basketball players from Dallas Point guards Puerto Rican men's basketball players Spirou Charleroi players Sportspeople from Bayamón, Puerto Rico UTSA Roadrunners men's basketball players