Name: Brandon Jennings
NBA Position: Point Guard
Ht: 6-0
Wt: 165
NBA Team: Milwaukee Bucks
Europe: Lottomatica Roma
Hometown: Lakewood, CA
High School: Oak Hill Academy
AAU: SoCal All Stars
Birthday: 9/23/1989

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Brandon Jennings was born on September 23, 1989 in Compton, CA. Jennings started playing basketball at Gardena’s Rowley Park when he was five years old. When he was eight, his father committed suicide, leaving his mother to take care of Brandon and his younger brother. It was hard for the Jennings family to stay in one place and they ended up going from home to home throughout Los Angeles, sometimes even all 3 of them staying in a one-bedroom apartment.

In the fourth grade, Jennings was a ball boy at Dominguez, helping to pass to the varsity team and grabbing rebounds. In middle school, Jennings played for the P. Miller All-Stars AAU squad and got to know Master P and Lil’ Romeo. When he was finally a freshman at Dominguez, Brandon averaged 9 rebounds, 8 assists, and 2 steals per game as a freshmen playing with three D-1 upperclassmen that finished 26-6 and made it to the finals of the Southern California bracket in the state tournament. Dominguez is the same school that produced Dennis Johnson, Tyson Chandler, and Tayshaun Prince.

As a sophomore, Brandon averaged 19 points per game as Dominguez reached the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Division IIAA tournament. During the summer, in his first ever matchup against highly touted high school phenom, OJ Mayo, Jennings held his own, scoring 24 points and dishing out 10 dimes, while guarding Mayo most of the time. Mayo finished with 28 points but shot 8-for-25 from the field.

In September, Jennings played at the famous Rucker Park at The Boost Mobile Elite 24 Hoops Classic, winning co-mvp and finishing with 12 points and 15 assists. His smooth point guard skills and sweet handle earned him love from the crowd’s toughest critics and earned him the nickname “Doobie Doo”.

Before his junior year, Brandon Jennings transferred to powerhouse Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia. In November, 2006, Jennings verbally committed to attending USC after graduating high school after considering Connecticut, Arizona, Texas, Syracuse, Kansas and UCLA. He would later de-commit and instead choose Arizona.

Instead of going to Arizona, Jennings signed with Lottomatica Roma of the Italian Lega A., becoming the first player to play overseas instead of a college basketball team since the NBA’s age restriction rule was implemented. Although Jennings didn’t get a lot of playing time, he was selected tenth overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2009 NBA Draft, becoming the first player who skipped college to play professional basketball in Europe to be drafted by an NBA team. The NBA Draft can be much like those who play bingo.

In his rookie year, Jennings scored 55 points in a game against the Warriors, becoming the youngest player to ever score 55 or more points. Jennings started all 82 games in his rookie year, finishing with an average of 15.5 points and 5.7 assists per game. In his 2nd season, Jennings averaged 16.2 points and 4.8 assists.