One on One with Jamar Nutter

Whitehead Envoy

Newspaper of the John C. Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations

Seton Hall University

February 2010

Timothy Dooley

Section Editor

Recently I had the chance to catch up with Jamar Nutter, a former shooting guard for the Seton Hall basketball team. He was instrumental in helping the Pirates reach the NCAA tournament in the 2005-2006 season. Nutter has played professional basketball overseas since leaving Seton Hall and

is currently with AS Sale in Morocco.

The following interview was conducted over the internet.

TD: How long have you played overseas?

JN: I have been playing overseas for two years now.

TD: How long did you play basketball in Germany for the Svortdmund 49ers?

JN: I played for the team in Germany for six months after I got released from a former team in Denmark, which was my first stop out of SHU.

TD: You played shooting guard at Seton Hall. Have you played this position on your international teams?

JN: On all the teams I have played on, I have played both point guard and shooting guard. In Uruguay, I sometimes played the small forward position, since we had another Uruguayan shooting guard.

TD: How much has your game changed since playing overseas?

JN: I feel my game has not changed. I just have developed more as a player. Since I am out of school, have no class, and am far from home,

I have plenty of time to work on it. I have improved in all areas of my game, so I cannot say it has changed from college. I just have developed more into my game.

TD: You currently play in Morocco for AS Sale. How is that going?

JN: Playing in Morocco has been good so far. I have nothing bad to sayat all. There are only ten teams in the league, and my team is currently in second place, but we are working our way back up to first place. As far as the other teams, some teams do not have the best athletes, but they make

up for it with their work effort, so it makes the games very competitive.

TD: Was there much of a culture shock in either Uruguay or Morocco?

JN: There was not much of a culture shock because both countries are mostly Americanized, but both countries of course have their own food, culture, and traditions. One thing that was shocking was while I know that the U.S. has homeless people, the homeless in Uruguay and Morocco live differently. It was down right bad seeing little kids in both countries that were no more than six years old looking in garbage cans for food, trying to find bottles to turn them in for money, and even sleeping on the streets with no place to go. It was just heartbreaking to me.

TD: One of your biggest shots was against Syracuse during the 2005- 2006 season. Have you had a really big shot like that in international play? What do you feel your best game was so far?

JN: Yes, I have had a couple of big shots like that overseas. I can remember in Germany our team was down by like nine points with about 45 seconds left. I helped my team come back from down nine, but then we got down by three. I hit a huge "and one" three and then hit the free throw. We won the game on that play. I would have to say, though, that was not my best game. My best game was in Uruguay. We were playing the second place team. We were down sixteen points in the fourth quarter with four minutes left in the game. I went into a zone and scored twelve straight points which got us back in the game. After that, we pulled together and won. It was a great run, and it sure felt real good.

TD: How different is international ball from college ball?

JN: Well it depends on the country and the league. Some leagues out here are just as competitive as college basketball, and there is really no difference, but some leagues are less competitive. The big places that are very competitive are Spain, Germany, Poland, Greece, Austria, Australia, Italy, Venezuela, and Argentina.

TD: Do you have to secure a contract at the end of each season or can you get multiyear deals?

JN: It depends on your play. If you perform very well and to your potential, then you will definitely get a job from year to year. There are also teams out there that if you play great and are a big key of winning games for them, then they will sign you for multiple years. It depends on your performance honestly.

TD: Do you still talk to any Seton Hall players?

JN: I talk to several former SHU players and am still friends with a majority of the teammates I played with during my years at SHU. I talk to Donald Copeland, Kelly Whitney, Grant Billmeier, Brian Laing, JR Morris, John Allen, Marcus Toney-El, and Desmond Herod. I also speak to

the current players at SHU through the internet from time to time to wish my guys lots of luck. They are a NCAA tournament team.