Adonis Jordan

American basketball player (born 1970)

Adonis Adelecino Jordan (born August 21, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player. An All Big Eight guard who played collegiately at the University of Kansas, Jordan was the starting point guard during the school's 1991 and 1993 Final Four appearances. Together with shooting guard teammate Rex Walters, the two established Kansas as having one of the top backcourts in the NCAA during the 1992–93 season. He was later drafted in the 1993 NBA draft but only appeared in only 10 career games in the league (six with the Denver Nuggets during the 1993–94 season and four with the Milwaukee Bucks during the lockout shortened 1999 NBA season). He spent the bulk of his professional career playing overseas with various basketball clubs.

Adonis Jordan was born as the fourth son to Josephine Jordan in Brooklyn, New York. His mother named her son after the Greek mythological character Adonis, a handsome young man who was fabled to be the love interest of the goddess Aphrodite. She worked as a secretary for an insurance company while her son spent his time playing pick up street basketball on Brooklyn blacktop courts. He transferred to Cleveland High School in Reseda and joined future NBA veteran Lucious Harris as stars of the school's varsity basketball team. The New York native was a big factor on the Cleveland High Cavaliers' squad, playing big roles on offense (averaging 13.8 points a game) and defense (averaging 5.9 steals per game) during the 1987–88 season. At the start of his senior year, Jordan was considered by some to be one of the state's top point guards and was named among the nation's 50 top rated high school seniors by basketball scout Bob Gibbons. He completed his final high school season averaging 24.3 points and 13.4 assists per game,