Young Ja'Quaye and Uncle Juelz Santana
Basketball Spotlight is now of its third Diary of A Ball for the 2013-14 season. Introducing Ja’quaye James from Englewood, NJ.
Hello Basketball World,
Yes, Juelz Santana is my uncle. Yes, I was the little boy in all the videos. Yes, I was on the “What The Games Been Missing" album and yes I used to rap and model but that was in the past.
This week went well for me, it was my birthday on February 15th then my uncle JuJu (Juelz) birthday on February 18th and we spent time together. We went out to eat with the family and had a bunch of laughs and a lot of food and a good time watching the all-star weekend festivities. Now it's time to let you'll know who I am and how my life changed for the better in the basketball world. Yes, this is my dream!
I'm Ja'Quaye James and my basketball journey started with the Gauchos, it was a good team, but the coaches felt they had better options than me, so therefore I moved on to the L.I. Lightning. The Lightning helped me figure out and define my game. Things were good for about a year then the high school program took over and snatched my two friends John Severe (Fordham)and Dayshon Smith. When they left I knew it was time for me to go. Next, I bounced back and forth from the Rens and Milbank. Both were good programs but I still needed to find the right home. Now I am PlayazFAM…4Life. I finally found a team and a place that I can call home and I love it here, “no chuck” this is real facts.
I grew up uptown on 164th street; this is where I got my toughness from. I played in the Pit and the Battle Grounds playgrounds with all the older guys. I always felt that if I can play here I can play anywhere. Now I play with a certain mindset every-time I'm on those basketball courts. This comes from getting told I'm too small or not strong enough or not fast enough. This made me battle tested at a young age. Now on the court I'm fearless and I'm always comfortable like I been there before. I think this type of chip on my shoulder is helping me out for the best. At the end of the day I was honored when Mike Melton asked me to do the diary and let you all into my life. I want to give you the real me on and off the court. I like to do a lot of other things besides a basketball, like playing video games, riding my 4 wheeler, and just chill with my friends. But I have no friends on the court. If you have that other jersey on, its war! LOL.. Ask Jahvon Quinerly, he is one of my good friends off the court but on the floor it’s a different story.
Once again this is Ja'Quaye James and I'm signing off aka Young Jelly Fam aka @jf_g3 Mr. 12 on IG LOL, nah I'm just playing. But I'm signing off, catch you'll next week. Ja'Quaye James best point guard in class hands down. Men lie women lie numbers don't. Facts of life.
