Ja Ron Rush - Career

Career

Rush played at UCLA, where he and Dan Gadzuric were both named the team's most valuable freshman in 1999. He was also named to the Pacific-10 Conference All-Freshman team. In his sophomore year, he hit a jumper with three seconds remaining to defeat then-No. 1-ranked Stanford in a 94–93 overtime road upset. Believing he would be a first-round pick, he declared for the 2000 NBA Draft but was not selected. The Los Angeles Daily News later called Rush "UCLA's poster child for an ill-advised exit."

Rush was drafted in the ABA in 2000 by the Kansas City Knights. He was traded before the start of the season to the Los Angeles Stars, where he played the 2000–2001 season. He entered into rehab for alcoholism in 2001. He was the final cut of the Seattle SuperSonics of the National Basketball Association during their 2001 training camp. He played 14 games for the Roanoke Dazzle in the D-League and averaged just 1.8 points before being granted his unconditional release in December 2001. He was signed to the Knights' practice squad in January 2002 before being cut in February for missing practice. He went into rehab again and retired from basketball that year. Rush accepted a job as freshman girls B-team basketball coach at Blue Valley Northwest High School in 2006. He was employed at a public relations firm in 2007 while finishing college.

He played high school basketball at The Pembroke Hill School, leading the team to three state championships. The state titles were eventually stripped after AAU Coach Myron Piggie pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge for paying $35,500 to five high school players on his Kansas City-based team from 1996-98. The players, aside from JaRon and his younger brother Kareem, were Corey Maggette, Korleone Young and Andre Williams, and also included actor Jason Sudeikis

Rush won the James A. DiRenna Award as the best basketball player in the Kansas City metro area, winning it outright as a sophomore and junior, and sharing the award with Victor Williams of Wyandotte High School (and later Oklahoma State) as a senior.