He's His Mother's Son

Jumpman Jr. got his first collegiate start on Tuesday against Iowa.  The result for Jeff was his typical 4 boards, 5 assists, a steal and 0 points in 23 minutes of play.  Before I go any further I have two crackpot theories for why Bruce Weber chose to start Jeff.

1).  Jeff and his lack of offensive skill and hustle reminds Bruce of his adopted son Chester Frazier, and Bruce desperately misses Chester and is seeking to fill the emotional void by giving Jeff more minutes.

2).  There is a kid named Roger who told Bruce that Jeff "had an angel with him"

For the record, it did not work.  The Illini were 1-7 from the field and had scored a total of 4 points when Demetri, DJ, and Dominique Keller were put into the game at the 15:47 mark of the first half. 

The good news is that they held the Hawkeyes to 3 points in that time span.  I understand that Weber wanted to send a message to D-Mac, but realistically, against a real team, you can't start Jeff and Bill Cole and expect be within 5 points of the lead by the first TV time-out.

The point is, barring some unforseen circumstance, this was Jeff's first and only start in college.  I only watched the first half of the game, and I don't know this for sure (becuse MJ's people won't return my calls), but Pops appeared to be a no show for Jeff's big moment. 

Maybe there will be a time 15 years from now that MJ is driving to his hotel after spending another Christmas in Vegas with Charles Oakley, and Harry Chapin's hit song "Cat's in the Cradle" will come on the radio, and at the end of the song when the father has just hung up the phone and he realizes "he'd grown up just like me. my boy was just like me" it will hit MJ and he'll realize that he regrets missing the game.

I don't know for sure if Michael is a good father or not, but if his Hall of Fame speech is any indication, when he said to his sons “I wouldn’t want to be you guys.”  It is likely that he feels sorry that they have to live in his shadow,  more than he feels pride in what Jeff and Marcus have accomplished.

It is obvious that MJ set an impossible standard for his sons to achieve in the basketball world, and it is a common phenomenon for the sons of NBA greats to have less than spectacular basketball careers. 
In addition to the Jordans, here are a few others:

Antron Pippen,

The son of Scottie probably is not even fit to play Robin to Jeff Jordan's Batman.  Last year he was a sophomore at Texas A&M International.  I can't find any mention of him this season.  Antron, like Jeff and Marcus was not blessed with his dad's size and is only 6-2.

Pat Ewing Jr.

Started out at Indiana before following Dad's footsteps to Georgetown.  Pat Jr. actually made it all the way to the NBA, but never really played.  In his own right, like everyone else on this list, had a fairly successfull basketball career.  When you compare Junior to Patrick (Hi Ryan) he falls well short.

Jonnie West

Currently a Junior at his dad's alma mater of West Virginia, Jonnie is averaging a career high of 3.0 points per game.  No word on whether the Logo is proud of his son or 'wouldn't want to be him'.  Maybe a mixture of both.  Also, I'm pretty sure that Jerry didn't wear an Iverson arm sleeve.

Alex Schrempf,

Detlef's boy is a freshman at UCLA where he is walking on this year.  The UCLA website calls Detlef "Germany's most successful player in the NBA".  Uhh, I love Detlef as much as anybody, but have they ever heard of Dirk Nowitski?

Jordan Dumars

Played in 6 games for University of South Florida this year before deciding to transfer to Michigan.  Is the only player on this list that is bigger than his father, at 6'6.