Troy Jackson
Encyclopedia
Troy Jackson was an American basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
player. The younger brother of former NBA player Mark Jackson
Mark Jackson (basketball)
Mark A. Jackson is a retired American professional basketball player and the current head coach of the Golden State Warriors. He played point guard for the New York Knicks, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets, Toronto Raptors, Utah Jazz, and Houston Rockets in the NBA in a career...
, he was a member of the AND1 Mixtape Tour
AND1 Mixtape Tour
The AND1 Live Tour, formerly known as the AND1 Mixtape Tour, is a traveling basketball competition and exhibition presented by B-Ball and Company and the basketball apparel manufacturer AND1. A group of streetball players, along with Emcee Rell and B-Ball and Company CEO Linda Hill, travel from...
, known by his streetball nickname "Escalade". Jackson was listed by AND1 at 6'10" and 375 pounds.
Troy Jackson weighed close to 500 pounds (227 kg) as a senior at Hills East High School in Long Island, New York, but his performances at Rucker Park
Rucker Park
Rucker Park is a basketball court in the Harlem neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located at 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard across the street from the former Polo Grounds site...
caught the attention of Bill Hughley, coach of Wallace Community College
Wallace Community College Selma
George Corley Wallace State Community College is a community college in Selma, Alabama. As of the Fall 2010 semester, WCCS has an enrollment of 1,938 students. The college was founded in 1963...
in Selma, Alabama
Selma, Alabama
Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. The population was 20,512 at the 2000 census....
. Jackson enrolled at Wallace, and even though he continued to play at 500 pounds (or more), he received all-region honors as a sophomore. "People wonder how I played at 500-plus pounds. But to me it felt natural," he later said. Jackson's accomplishments in community college led to a scholarship offer from the University of Louisville
University of Louisville
The University of Louisville is a public university in Louisville, Kentucky. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General...
, though the school demanded that he lose weight. Jackson complied, and by his senior year at Louisville, he had slimmed down to about 363 pounds (164.7 kg) after adhering to a strict diet.
Jackson only played twenty games for Louisville over two years, averaging 3.0 points per game
Points per game
Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of points by number of games. The terminology is often used in...
and 1.6 rebounds per game in a reserve role. However, he became well-known to basketball fans through the AND1 Mixtape Tour, a travelling streetball
Streetball
Streetball or street basketball is a variation of the sport of basketball, typically played on outdoor courts and featuring significantly less by way of formal structure and enforcement of the game's rules...
exhibition which he joined in 2002. With the AND1 Tour
AND1 Mixtape Tour
The AND1 Live Tour, formerly known as the AND1 Mixtape Tour, is a traveling basketball competition and exhibition presented by B-Ball and Company and the basketball apparel manufacturer AND1. A group of streetball players, along with Emcee Rell and B-Ball and Company CEO Linda Hill, travel from...
, Jackson used the nickname Escalade
Cadillac Escalade
The Cadillac Escalade is a full-size luxury sport utility vehicle sold by the General Motors luxury brand, Cadillac. It was the division's first major entry into the popular SUV market. The Escalade was introduced for the 1999 model year in response to German and Japanese competitors and to Ford's...
, a reference to the Cadillac
Cadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
SUV. His teammate Antwan "8th Wonder" Scott told the Herald Sun
Herald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
, "He's a big guy, but he can entertain and he can seriously play." Jackson appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
and was described as a "streetball legend" by the magazine Jet
Jet (magazine)
Jet is an American weekly marketed toward African-American readers, founded in 1951 by John H. Johnson of Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, Illinois...
.
Off the basketball court, Jackson worked as an advocate for STD
Sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...
prevention. He died in his sleep on February 20, 2011.