Born and raised in Huntsville, Alabama, Denver Jones has been surrounded by and passionate about the game of basketball for as long as he can remember. After watching his older brother's career in the sport though—from middle school to college to the pros—, Denver became intrigued by the opportunity to embark on a journey of his own within the game. This was only the beginning. Throughout his time in middle school, Denver remembers watching March Madness and Final Four tournaments and quickly solidifying his interest in one day playing at the collegiate level. He was on a mission. It wasn't all smooth sailing though. During his junior year, he suffered a knee injury that was more severe than initially diagnosed. After learning that his patellar tendon was halfway torn, Denver stepped away from the game for three months to focus on his recovery before returning to the floor. Even then, he remained locked in. Utilizing this time to think about different aspects of his game, Denver returned to the court ready to discover new ways to score the ball. From improving his ball handling to strengthening his jumper to developing his three-point shot, Denver expanded his skill set on the floor and elevated his basketball IQ. The rest is history!
Upon graduating from high school, Denver started his collegiate career at Garden City Community College before joining the Florida International University (FIU) basketball program—where he played two seasons before transferring to Auburn University. Currently in his first season at Auburn, Denver is excited to be playing in the SEC Conference and has a clear goal in mind as he begins this chapter of his collegiate basketball career: to win a national championship. Along with this, he is looking forward to earning his degree in the years to come and inching closer to his dreams of playing in the NBA.
Take us back to your time in high school! How do you think your game elevated throughout your time there to prepare you for the next level?
My story is kind of crazy. Throughout high school, I was always highly-known in Alabama as far as high school basketball. My game back then was real simple: I could create and I could go downhill. Downhill was my thing—that's one thing I really took pride in. Well, that and playing defense. Around my junior year, I ended up having a knee injury that I didn't really know the full extent of. Once I first hurt it, I went to the doctor and they just did X-rays. They said I just had patellar tendinitis so, of course, I just went along and played another year of basketball. When I came back to the doctor—because my knee didn't feel like it was just tendinitis—I actually told my mom if we could do an MRI or something. The doctor came back with the results and he was like, “Yeah, your patellar tendon is halfway torn. Take three months off.” I want to say it was about late April when I found this out, so my whole last year of AAU season I didn't get to play. I ended up having to pick up a job during summer just to help my parents around the house pay bills, so they didn't have to really give me any extra money. They could just use that for the more important things. I think I started back working out for basketball (towards) the end of July. Luckily, since I had transferred and gone to prep school, I didn't have to report to school until late August or early September. I had an extra month to actually workout and get back in basketball shape.
During your junior year, you started to tap into different areas of your game—including developing your three-point shot. Could you share more with us about how you developed those different areas of your game?
I played basketball for another year before I found out the full extent of my knee injury. During that time, I really couldn't finish above the rim how I used to. Basically, I just had to work on different aspects of my game and ways to score the ball—that was one thing that I was really known for doing: scoring. If I couldn't dunk, I had to rely on getting to the defender’s body. I had to pick up certain skills, certain tactics to give me a different level of advantage as far as going to finish at the rim. This knee injury was lowkey kind of restricting me in a sense because I couldn't really explode how I really wanted to. I wasn't as quick, wasn't as fast. But, that also helped me as far as my ball handling. I couldn't get past anybody off of just sheer speed, I had to use my ball handling a little bit more. Then, I had to better develop my jump shot as well. I couldn't finish above the rim all the time so I had to build my jump shot. I feel like my last year of high school, I started to see it as far as my jump shot coming into play, my ball handling being a whole lot better, and my athleticism starting to get back to how it was.
Throughout your time at both Garden City and FIU, you earned an array of accolades—including All-Conference First Team and Freshman of the Year in the Jayhawk Conference as well as setting a record at FIU as the first Panther in program history to be named First Team in all conference as a sophomore. What did earning those accolades and achieving those honors mean to you?