January, 29, 2000
Elementary schools get the "Basketball" Jones
By Cathy Willoughby
Staff Writer
The St. Joseph Activity Center was bouncing Friday morning, to the sounds of invigorating music and basketballs.
The elementary school was the site of inspirational, and highly entertaining, feats of "Basketball'' Jones.
Jim Jones, a motivational speaker from Toledo, held the youngsters spellbound. He performed juggling and other tricks with basketballs, while delivering this message: If you believe it, you can do it.
All involved some degree of audience participation, thrilling the children as they took turns balancing spinning balls, doing various basketball throws and tricks.
One eighth grade girl was given a Pepsi to drink. "In order to make this trick more entertaining, I brought you a glass, Jones told her. Draping a towel around her so that she would not receive too many stains, he had her tip her head back, and spun the ball on the edge of the glass, while giving her sips of the soda.
A third grader did a trick that would rival any by the "Harlem Globetrotters,'' spinning four basketballs at one time. Jones had the young boy sit on the floor, with his legs out in front of him. Jones taped two pegs to the toes of his tennis shoes, then spun the basketballs, placing one each on the child's toes and on a finger of each hand.
Jones who was diagnosed as dyslexic as a first grader in Avon Lake, was taken out of the regular classroom environment to receive "special classes. '' Mainstreamed in the sixth grade, he still received tutoring help. Yet his attitude and determination caused him to spend hours each day learning to do tricks using basketballs. While in junior high, he was using these talents to entertain others, and was approached by the manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers to do half-time shows while a freshman in high school.
"I could go out on that huge court by myself before the games,'' Jones said. "I would be out there, shooting baskets, and then out of the tunnel would come some of the NBA players. They would be carrying their shoes, and would get down on the floor and start their stretching exercises; so I would go over there next to them and stretch out too. Then they would shoot some baskets, and I would rebound.''
Meeting all of the professional basketball players was an experience of a lifetime for the high school student, and he was receiving attention himself for being there.
"When I was 17, I was spinning seven basketballs, and juggling four. Kids would come up to me on the sidelines, and say, 'You get to meet all of these basketball players. And you do all of these great tricks. You are pretty cool. Can I have your autograph,'' he said.
However, his public and private personas were not the same; he was still struggling with school work.
"I was reading 86 words a minute ... for me reading a book was like walking backwards,'' Jones told the students. "When I was 17, I went home and told my mom, 'Mom, I'm going to flunk high school.'''
He said that his mother asked if he was working hard enough. He replied that he was still tutored and went every day, so he was trying as hard as he could.
"I said to her, 'I'm trying, Mom don't let your son fail,'' he recalled. "I want to pass, please, read this to me.''
He had his mother read to him, because he knew his future would be dim without his high school diploma. Once he had achieved the course needed for his graduation, he set his sights for college.
His high school guidance counselor told him "not to waste his time or money.'' Still undaunted, Jones took the ACT, and received a score of 13. "I saw on the score sheet that it stated that this student has a 25 percent chance of passing college,'' he said. "I showed that to him, and said, 'It says here that I have a chance.''
He went on to Bowling Green State University. "I put down my basketball then,'' he said. "I said, when I graduate from college, I'll see you again.''
He applied himself to his studies, securing the help of a teaching coach, while he read every chapter of his texts, four times. "I graduated on time, in four years, and I was the number one ranked student in the finance department there. And my name was in the Wall Street Journal as one of the best business students in the country.''
On graduation day, he said he looked at the faces of his fellow students, similar to the ones who had laughed at him when he was in grade school. "I saw the faces of people who were smarter than me,'' Jones said. "And I said to myself, why am I the one graduating with honors? Then I realized that the ability didn't matter, if you didn't use it. That if you work hard, you can do it.''
He told the youngsters to take his example to heart. "Believe in yourself,'' he said. "Say that 'I can, I will,' and always be willing to try. If you try something and you fall flat on your face; get up and try again. Never give up.''
Jones makes more than a hundred appearances to schools and other organizations a year, and also operates two businesses.