Photo credit: Sébastien Grasset
Hired by Nanterre 92 as a medical freelancer, Edwin Jackson is still struggling to find his rhythm. The former top scorer in the championship is only two points on average but his coach Pascal Donnadieu insists: “He is far from being burned!”
A person arriving for the first time in a basketball hall at the start of the season would perhaps not suspect that the n°11 of Nanterre was, in the not so distant past, one of the best players in France and the one of the safest arms of the continent. Since the start of the season, Edwin Jackson must be content with a shadow role within the Ile-de-France team (2 points at 40%, 0.7 rebounds and 0.3 assists, in short sequences (12 minutes). Last Tuesday, at this respect, his passage against Paris was noticed (4 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist) but we remain far from the player capable of shooting more than 21 points on average in Spain. Logical because the rear with 54 selections in Blue tries to reconnect with the thread of competition, he who has been dogged by injuries in recent years, between two wrist fractures on his shooting hand and a hamstring injury. “He needs to get back into rhythm because he hasn’t played in a long time”argues Benjamin Sene. “It’s not necessarily easy for him, we try to give him confidence. But he brings us his experience because he has been a pro for a long time. »
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH EDWIN JACKSON:
“I WILL KEEP PLAYING UNTIL I AGE 50 IF I CAN”
In the wake of his rise to power against Paris, Edwin Jackson failed to confirm at Fos-sur-Mer on Saturday. Freed for nine minutes from the bench, he scored as soon as he came into play, with a nice floater above the long segments of Shevon Thompson, before suffering, like his teammates, the ditch tide (-12 during his passage). In the second half, as against Paris, he then did not see the field. Certainly frustrating for a player who told us last summer, well before his signing at Nanterre, that he was dying to prove his worth after his injuries. « JI will always be playing to dominate. There will be no time in my career where I will be happy to stay in the corner and dribble, unless I play for a top club. In my current state of mind, I would like to continue to be competitive. […] I do things methodically. I can’t skip steps. If I want to come back at the top level, I have to prove that I can still play and dominate at this level. I’m looking for a situation where a team will need my scoring skills, maybe in a smaller market, where I can prove that I’m still a player who offensively at a level above the others.«
“A boy who is still able to play and produce”
Obviously, it would have been much easier for Edwin Jackson to achieve this with a whole season ahead of him, rather than five games, but unfortunately his allotted time at Nanterre is soon coming to an end. At the end of the contract on October 15, the former FC Barcelona player theoretically only has two games left with the Ile-de-France team, in Nancy and against Roanne. A freelance under the orders of Pascal Donnadieu, in the form of a leap to the past, which certainly reminds him of his young years, he who started in Pro B in 2008/09 with the JSF. Failing to envisage, for the moment, a future in common, his coach remains one of his most fervent defenders and the first to believe in him. “If a contract extension is possible? Everything in its time. For the moment, he is a medical freelancer for Bastien (Pinault). What is certain is that there is a win-win situation between us. He is in full possession of his means, there is no problem from this point of view. He is far from being burnt out. At Fos, I didn’t use him much but he’s a boy who is still capable of playing and producing, I have no doubt about that. » And if it’s not in Nanterre, Edwin Jackson will surely find a way to show it elsewhere. Because at 33, the ex-MVP still has a lot of baskets to put in…
In Fos-sur-Mer,
par
October 5, 2022 at 11:12 am
A person arriving for the first time in a basketball hall at the start of the season would perhaps not suspect that the n°11 of Nanterre was, in the not so distant past, one of the best players in France and the one of the safest arms of the continent. Since the start of the season, Edwin Jackson must be satisfied with a role of om…
