Early Life
Jackson was born in Houston and spent his childhood in Port Arthur, Texas. Growing up, Jackson was raised by his mother, Judyette, a single parent who worked two jobs. As a teenager, Jackson worked in his grandfather's soul food restaurant in Port Arthur, where he would wash dishes and bus tables. At the age of 14, Jackson saw his half-brother Donald Buckner die at 25 years old. Following the violent tragedy, Jackson said that he wished he could have been there to assist and protect a member of his family. "You can't tell me seeing his brother die that way hasn't had an effect," recalls Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh. "To me, it's why he is always coming to the help of his teammates."
Jackson led Lincoln High School to a state championship in his junior year before transferring to Oak Hill Academy (Virginia), where he earned All-America honors in 1996. He was the leading scorer in the 1996 McDonald's All-American game, on a team that included Kobe Bryant, Jermaine O'Neal and Tim Thomas. Following a commitment to join the University of Arizona, Jackson was ruled academically ineligible. He attended Butler Community College.
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Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
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“I do believe that the outward and the inward life correspond; that if any should succeed to live a higher life, others would not know of it; that difference and distance are one. To set about living a true life is to go on a journey to a distant country, gradually to find ourselves surrounded by new scenes and men; and as long as the old are around me, I know that I am not in any true sense living a new or a better life.”
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