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What is Jelly Fam? The movement bringing NYC basketball back to the top
Jelly Fam is the resurrection of New York City basketball itself.
In an age where the best high school players in the tri-state area have to leave to play against top competition elsewhere, just to get recruited to the next level, the Jelly Fam movement is keeping NYC’s top talent home.
You might’ve seen the hashtag on IG and some of the most impressive high school ball highlights on Overtime every time you check your feed, but what does it mean?
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The movement was started by two local basketball stars, Isaiah Washington and Ja’Quaye James. Both of them are dumb nice, highly respected ball players within the tri-state area and both were born and raised in Harlem
From their local leagues to the competitions at the biggest parks, they’ve made a reputation for bringing finesse and good marketing back to the game.
Isaiah first came up with the idea to use the move because he was inspired by Michael Jordan’s famous free throw line dunk, and all of his double-clutch layups.
Isaiah wasn’t really able to dunk at the time either so emulating Jordan with his own move that he called a Jelly was the wave. Ja’Quaye and Isaiah were homies and came up with idea together and the Jelly Fam movement was born.
From there they started to indoctrinate the best players in New York City area into the basketball sensation that is Jelly Fam.
Ja’Quaye James a well known high school basketball player from Harlem and the CEO of Jelly Fam. He is a 5’9 high school basketball player currently in his senior season at Teaneck High School in New Jersey. He makes scoring look easy on the court.
He also has a vision for Jelly Fam as a whole. He sees it becoming a worldwide movement once everyone is adults and are able to move they way they want to move.
Isaiah Washington is the face of the Jelly Fam movement, he currently plays at the University of Minnesota but he was embarrassing people on the court since high school.
He has crazy highlights at Rucker Park, Under Armour Association, and other basketball courts. Isaiah plays basketball like he has a ball on a string.
When he is playing against his opponents it just looks so unfair as he blows by his them with complete ease and to make it even more entertaining he will probably Jelly to top it off. He’s claimed many ankles in his high school career. His style of play is calm, controlled and he always knows how to finish around rim with finesse.
Isaiah and Jelly Fam have received cosigns from stars like Melo, Dave East, Cam’Ron, and Juelz Santana, who is Ja’Quaye James’ uncle. What they see in them is very similar to the movement he and Dipset created during the 2000s.
Cam’Ron has commended the young basketball players for starting their own movement and even knows that they had a hand in it saying,
“Jah was around all that he seen the guerilla marketing. This is incredible for these kids to come together and create a basketball movement that has great marketing. This is something we have never seen they are paving the way for basketball crews.”
Jahquay being around his uncle’s rise to fame has definitely benefitted him positively when in comes to marketing for Jelly Fam as a brand. This system has helped Jelly Fam dominate social media platforms from Twitter, to Instagram and of course YouTube.
Despite all the clout that the Jelly Fam movement has garnered Isaiah manages to stay level headed amongst the chaos on and off the court and is focused on getting into the NBA and making Jelly Fam a Worldwide movement.
Jelly Fam has since expanded far beyond just Isiah and Ja’Quay they have recruited a very diverse group of players into the Jelly Fam arsenal. They have recruited Sid Wilson, Jahvon Quinerly, Jordan Walker, Leondre Washington, Nazreon Reid, just to name a few.
Sid Wilson is one of the newer members of Jelly Fam.
He is a 6’7 and absolute monster on the defensive side as well as the offensive.
He is a forced to be reckoned with on court, once you see the highlights it makes sense why Jelly Fam sought him out to join their squad.
Jahvon Quinerly is a 6’0 PG and he absolute monster inside the paint.
He has crazy handles that put defenders on skates and he is able to finish in the paint.
Jordan Walker is another athlete who has a killer instinct for basketball.
He suffocates players that he is defending giving them little room to breathe let alone dribble a basketball. He approaches the game of basketball with a killer’s mentality.
Leondre Washington is another 6’0 PG who is well known in Jersey.
Leondre is not afraid at all to take it to rim against people that are way bigger than him. He also has the a great shooting ability from mid range as well as the 3 point line.
He is very passionate when he plays basketball and he a play to win mentality that has clearly payed off.
Nazreon Reid is an absolute monster on the court.
Nazreon has the ability to dominate the court offensively as well as defensively.
He has the ability to finish in the post either with a lay up or a monstrous dunk and has also shown that has a great vision on the court making crazy passes to his teammates in order the get the bucket.
Jelly Fam is definitely a force to be reckoned with on and off the court. Recruiting some of the top talent into the brotherhood has kept some of the tri-state’s best talent home and bringing more focus into the game than ever.
With other forces like the Big Baller Brand in full effect, the landscape of how kids like them can connect with their audience has completely changed. They’re on to something.
The force of their movement has the possibility to grow into a brand well beyond just basketball. Jelly Fam is a lifestyle.