Despite being hailed as the best high school basketball player in the country, Jabari Parker says basketball is only what he does, not who he is. He considers his faith more important than his basketball skills.
Jabari Parker is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are often nicknamed Mormons. His mother is Mormon and raised the children in her faith. His father is not. Jabari and his brother have always put their faith first. His brother served a voluntary two-year mission for his church, telling Jabari it was the best thing he’d ever done and the highlight of his life. His mother, who also served a mission, agrees.
Every morning, despite the demands of his schoolwork and basketball training, Jabari wakes up early and attends a religion class before school. The class, known as Seminary, is an in-depth, high-level study of the scriptures used by Mormons—two years of Bible study, one of the Book of Mormon, and one of the Doctrine and Covenants, which also covers church history. The class lasts all four years of high school. This year Jabari is studying the New Testament. In the course of the year, he will read all of it, study the doctrine and history, and memorize a list of important scriptures and their meanings.
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Jabari and his brother first learned to play basketball in their Mormon church building. Most of these buildings include a large hall used for sports, parties, and cultural entertainment and a basketball court is standard in these halls. Most teen programs include a basketball team that does not require try-outs and requires that every teen be allowed to play, regardless of skill. For Jabari, the church building was a safe place in the dangerous area of Chicago where he lives. He and his brother received their own key so they could practice whenever they wanted, and this, Jabari believes, helped keep him out of the trouble many teens in more dangerous neighborhoods succumb to.
When Jabari started to play high school basketball, his parents informed the coaches he was a student and a Mormon first. This is not the usual attitude of parents of talented young athletes, especially when the father was a professional athlete as well (he played for the Warriors), but the coaches agreed to honor that. Jabari attends church for three hours each Sunday and practices are scheduled around his meeting schedule. Even when the team travels, his coaches make certain he gets to church if he’s gone on a Sunday.
Jabari keeps scriptures in his backpack and is always ready to answer questions about his faith, since he is one of very few Mormons in his school. He also pays attention to the fact that younger athletes and fans are watching and he considers it a serous responsibility to set a good moral example for them. He is considered a highly grounded young man who has no interest in the fact that he is famous. When reporters went searching for him after a winning game one day, they found him serving water to the JV team instead of soaking in congratulations. He has said he doesn’t like the attention he gets and that basketball is a team sport, not an individual one.
There had been hope among Mormons that he might decide to play for Mormon-owned Brigham Young University in college. It was on his top five list, but for the coaching staff, not the religion. Parker knows from experience he can be a good Mormon anywhere. He selected Duke university, instead. When fans from a few of the schools he didn’t choose began tweeting rude and profane things about him, he responded by tweeting:
“Trying to grow up fast. Act with a lot of class. I want to be respectful ALL the time. Sometimes people forget I’m 17#strivingforcharacter”
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