Roster: ClutchOZ
Sliders: SCHNAIDT1
MyLeague Settings: SCHNAIDT1
Quarter Length: 12 minutes
Draft Classes: Historic (1998 class first)
Playoffs: 7-7-7-7
Sliders: SCHNAIDT1
MyLeague Settings: SCHNAIDT1
Quarter Length: 12 minutes
Draft Classes: Historic (1998 class first)
Playoffs: 7-7-7-7
Birch's Road to Redemption Has Unfinished Business
June 29, 2019
Brooklyn, NY -- Jelani Birch has been a household on the playgrounds of New York City since he was 14. Long were the days and nights that he pounded the pavement with whatever round ball he could get his hands on as the clank of the metal net in his neighborhood playground basketball hoop got yet another workout. In his first start as a high school freshman at Thomas Jefferson High, Birch notched an eye-popping statline: 31 points 14 rebounds, 9 assists, 6 steals, 4 blocks. He made 14 of his 21 field goal attempts, including 3-for-4 from three. Thus, the legend of Jelani Birch was born. However, several minor run-ins with the law threatened his basketball future. Still, after his sophomore season Birch was considered by many as the best high school prospect in the country, regardless of class. However, he was at a crossroads after his sophomore year and decided a change a of landscape was necessary. Birch enrolled at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School. Over the course of his junior and senior seasons at Bishop, Birch averaged 33.4 PPG, 14.2 RPG, and 9.8 APG. His legacy as the next New York City great seemed cemented.
However, on March 25th, 2017, Jelani Birch's future hung in the balance after he was arrested for being an accomplice to manslaughter in a back alley deal gone wrong. “It was one big blur,” Birch recounts, “I wasn’t even sure what we were doing there in the first place.” The following morning Birch’s name was headline news for every major sports news outlet in the country.
If last night’s draft is any indication of the future, though, then perhaps fate is on Jelani Birch’s side. Maybe this is a true redemption story coming full circle. The New York City basketball legend was drafted first overall by his hometown Knicks. In order to fully understand how special of a moment last night was for Birch, and why it took him three full minutes to gain his composure at his table as he sat with his face buried in his hands sobbing before making his way to the stage to greet Adam Silver, one must first understand what Birch went through the previous 27 months.
“It was a very poor choice on my part. I was with a group of old friends that I knew were trouble and I got caught up in it. I didn’t pull the trigger and I never handled or did anything directly illegal, but I was there. Just at the wrong place at the wrong time. I thought I was done.”
Lauded as one of the best New York City basketball products ever, the 6’9”, 245 pound, 17 year old do-it-all forward was being mentioned in the same breath as the best to ever come from NYC. Hoopheads all across NYC revered Birch as one of the greats. The old-timers take the “wait-and-see” approach, but acknowledged his talent, while the younger generations of NYC hoopheads felt certain it was only a matter of time before he cemented his legacy as arguably the GOAT NYC basketball player.
But after his arrest, Birch became a gamble that no college coach was willing to take. His St. John’s scholarship offer was rescinded his basketball future seemed bleak. Fortunately for Birch, all of the charges he was associated with did not stick so there was no jail time. But it was the last straw for college coaches who knew he came with a lot of baggage. There was one coach, however, that was willing to reach out to Birch. On June 21st, almost three months after Birch’s arrest, he received a phone call from Steve Eck, the head coach at Hutchinson Community College.
“I came at him hard and with strict guidelines in place. I knew the baggage he carried, but I also knew, after talking to his high school coach, teachers, and a few community members, that Jelani was a kid who had turned his life around and just got caught being in a bad spot at the wrong time. It happens, and it’s unfortunate, but he was a 17 year old kid who still had his whole life ahead of him, and it’d be a shame to not give him one last chance and let that amount of talent go to waste.”
Eck offered Birch a scholarship but it had conditions; very strict ones at that. Birch was not allowed to miss a single class unless he was sick and the sickness was verified by Eck or a member of his coaching staff. Secondly, Birch was required to do 10 hours of volunteer work in the community each week. Thirdly, Birch was required to maintain a 2.5 GPA. And, lastly, Eck emphasized this was a two year commitment. “Obviously I had no legal way to hold him to that if he decided to leave after one year, but I wanted him to know how serious I was in helping him out and just being there for him,” said Eck.
“Coach told me he wanted to be able to invest two years in me as a person, not a basketball player. That really meant a lot to me. I never met my dad. Moms was and still is my whole world, but Coach Eck was exactly who I needed when I needed it most.”
So, with no other serious offers coming his way, and after a few more weeks of Eck calling to check up on him, Birch made his decision. “You know, in those two weeks that he kept calling me every day,” said Birch, “coach didn’t mention basketball one time. He didn’t sell me on his program or his vision for me. He asked me what I was doing to make sure I was staying away from trouble. He was asking me about my past...my mom...he just seemed like a real genuine dude.”
Birch could’ve done a lot worse if he had to go the JUCO route. Hutchinson was fresh off winning the NJCAA National Championship in 2017 and were national runner’s-up in 2016. Eck obviously had basketball acumen and it paid off for Birch.
Not only did Birch meet every condition in his scholarship, he led the Blue Dragons to the NJCAA Final Four in 2017-2018 before and another national championship in 2018-2019. In his two seasons with Hutchinson, Birch averaged 31.3 PPG, 12.8 RPG, 8.7 APG, 2.3 SPG, 1.4 BPG, and showed the country that the hype he had as a basketball player was, in fact, very real.
So, as Jelani Birch sat at the table and began sobbing uncontrollably after Adam Silver announced that his hometown Knicks had selected him with the first overall pick, you might excuse him for his moment of raw emotion. After nearly seeing his basketball career slip through his fingers as a 17 year old kid, three years later he now has the opportunity to write his own destiny after it nearly slipped through his fingers.
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