WATERFORD (WXYZ) — A quick YouTube search for Isaiah Jackson yields you all the highlights you'd ever want from the 27th best basketball prospect in the country.
He spent the last three years at Spire Academy, a nationally recognized basketball factory that prepares preps for the next level, but before his senior season, his hometown came calling.
“I’ve been wanting him to come play with us, our coaches were telling me to go talk to him during AAU, so I’ve been telling him we really needed him to come,” Waterford Mott senior Damarion Bonds said.
“He wanted to come home and be around mom and dad, he said he didn’t have that family feel down there and that’s what we wanted to give him here,” Waterford Mott head coach David McGlown said.
The recruiting pitch worked. Now, Jackson is back home, trying to push Waterford Mott to new heights and he’s feeing the love from the community.
“The student section sort of gets me hype, the big crowds, my family being there gives me an edge to my game, it’s just fun,” 5-Star Isaiah Jackson said.
Now next season Isaiah will be going to Kentucky to play for John Calipari, the Wildcats and in front of Big Blue Nation, one of the biggest fan bases in college basketball but for one season, at least for a couple more months, he just wanted to be a kid, playing in front of his community and most importantly his family.
“I feel like prep took a lot out of me, I basically felt like a grown up, I got the chance to see how it feels to be a grown up, living by myself, but my own groceries and stuff like that, with me coming home I just finally got to feel like a kid,” Jackson said.
“He’s better than advertised, the kids IQ is through the roof, he can do more things that I heard he can even do, he really surprised me,” McGlown added.
Time is fleeting as he’ll return to the basketball grind next summer, but for now, he’s playing for the love of the game, with his friends, chasing a championship
