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Philly's Rysheed Jordan chasing pro career

08/10/2015, 11:45am EDT

By Ari Rosenfeld

Rysheed Jordan (above) had an up-and-down two years at St. John's, and is now pursuing his professional career. (Photo: Mark Jordan)

Ari Rosenfeld (@realA_rosenfeld)
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Every year, the Rumph Classic represents a chance for fans to see some of their favorite Philadelphia basketball figures from the past. Some are Philly natives, some played their college ball here, and some even suited up for the Sixers.

And there are plenty of names that bring people back a few decades; guys like Terquin Mott and Ronald “Flip” Murray last played organized ball in the city in high school during the mid-1990’s.

Rysheed Jordan’s time away from Philly was just a bit more fleeting.

Only two years removed from leading since-closed Vaux High School to the PIAA Class A championship, the former St. John’s guard is done with college after an up-and-down two years at the New York City school.

Now, a point guard that many once saw as a sure-fire first round NBA Draft selection is pursuing professional basketball opportunities, wherever they may be.

“I don’t know yet. It’s either overseas or the D-League, two options,” Jordan said on Saturday after his first Rumph Classic appearance. “It depends whether I would prefer to go far or stay local.”

He also said that his decision will come “soon.”

In his first public comments since announcing his decision to leave Queens, Jordan provided a bit of clarity to some of the tumultuous events around the St. John’s program in the months leading up to his departure.

On March 27, it was announced that St. John’s would be parting ways with Steve Lavin, the coach who recruited Jordan to the Manhattan school and coached him the last two seasons.

Just three days later, former Red Storm and NBA star Chris Mullin received the school’s head coaching job.

A couple weeks after Mullin was hired, Jordan announced that he would be returning to St. John’s instead of entering the NBA Draft.

Then, in late May, it was reported that Jordan may be academically ineligible were he to stay at St. John’s for this coming season, and finally, Jordan announced on June 5 that he would be going pro, with the announcement coming after the early-entry deadline for the 2015 NBA Draft.

“I was going to go into the ‘15 Draft, but it got too late,” he said. “I was iffy on if I was going back, and it came too late, and I didn’t go to take my finals.”

That ultimately resulted in Jordan being ruled ineligible for at least the first semester of the 2015-16 school year, with the possibility of playing in the second semester if he could get his academics straightened out.

Jordan opted instead to go pro, and although the official decision didn’t come until after the eligibility rumors began swirling, Jordan told CoBL that he thought as soon as Lavin was let go that he might not be returning to the school.

“That’s the [coach] that brought me in there, so when he was leaving, I always figured I was going to leave,” Jordan said.

However, he expressed no ill will towards Mullin or the St. John’s program.

In fact, Jordan maintains a relationship with the Red Storm coach, who has apparently give him some advice on how to go about having a successful pro basketball career, something Mullin knows a thing or two about.

“I talked to him a lot. I still talk to him to this day,” Jordan said, adding that Mullin tells him to “just keep working, and keep going forward. Don’t go backwards.”

Jordan entered St. John’s out of Vaux as a five-star recruit, unanimously considered one of the top point guards in the country and the highest-ranked recruit that Lavin had landed.

While his play was solid--Jordan averaged 12 points and 3.1 assists per game in his two seasons--he never quite lived up to expectations on the court. He struggled with turnovers and his jump shot came and went, with flashes of the brilliance he showed at Vaux typically being sandwiched by errant decisions with the ball.

His St. John’s career was also marked by off-court issues. Jordan missed six games over his two seasons for various non-injury reasons, ranging violations of team rules to deaths in his family.

Ultimately, Jordan knows that he’s yet to live up to the massive expectations weighed upon him when he earned the moniker “Prince of North Philly” through his dominant high school career.

It’s clear that he struggled with the “student” portion of being a student-athlete, and it’s possible that becoming a professional sooner rather than later is the best path for the ultra-talented guard. Looking back, though, he values his college experience, even with all of its ups and downs.

“The good and bad, it was great up there,” he said. “If I could do it all over again, I would do it, even though it wasn’t perfect.”