Me and a couple of the homies at graduation today pic.twitter.com/QopEvoguOF
— JARRETT JACK (@Jarrettjack03) December 13, 2014
Brooklyn Nets guard Jarrett Jack fulfilled a lifelong promise to his mother today, walking at Georgia Tech’s graduation after earning a degree in business management.
The 31-year-old Nets guard, who played 21 minutes in the team’s 88-70 win over the Philadelphia 76ers Friday night, says he flew a private jet out of New Jersey late Saturday night to Atlanta to meet his family before the 8:00 A.M. ceremony. When he’s finished at his graduation, he’ll then fly to Charlotte to be with his team to take on the Charlotte Hornets tonight. He did not expect to get any sleep before the game.
Jack learned of the trade that sent him to Brooklyn while attending one of his summer classes to finish his degree. It was the last class of his semester, Jack said, and he walked out of the classroom to take the call from his agent, who begun singing the “New York, New York” song to him. When he returned to class, his classmates seemingly already knew what happened, likely due to the reports that had broken on social media.
Prior to his professional career, Jack played three seasons at Georgia Tech from 2003-2005, one year shy of his degree. He was drafted 22nd overall out of college by the Denver Nuggets in the 2005 NBA Draft. Today, he gets to walk with his classmates as one of the elder statesmen of the group.
He’s also probably the only alum in Georgia Tech history to squeeze in his graduation between back-to-back NBA games by flying a private jet. Not a bad, if sleep-deprived, life.