Malique Jacobs paid $250 to tryout for the G League. Now hes a pro ball player.

This September, Malique Jacobs was a recent college graduate looking for a job. He had very little money to his name. We all know that story. Many of us have starred in that story.

Basketball, up until that point, paid for everything. His journey through the sport took him from his hometown of Wilmington, N.C., all the way to some place called Ottumwa, Iowa, where he played junior college hoops at Indian Hills Community College, and then to Kent, Ohio, where he finished up collegiately this past spring at Kent State University.

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All of that was now in the rearview. Jacobs wasn’t drafted. His name wouldn’t have popped up on two top-100 big boards. The highlight of his summer between graduating and September was being an extra body in two pre-draft workouts. He asked his agents to “just send me overseas” so that he could have enough coin to make a living. Jacobs’ sneaker, seemingly, met the end of the road.

The sport he loved so much, for the first time, didn’t love him back.

“I was thinking about getting a job,” Jacobs told The Athletic. “My aunt, she works for Michelin Tires. I was going to get a pretty good job.”

Luckily for Jacobs, he made an impression at one of the two pre-draft workouts he attended this past spring. In Detroit, decision-makers for the G League’s Motor City Cruise were intrigued by his defense and simplicity offensively. Cruise assistant general manager Max Unger, who was familiar with Jacobs because he was tasked with scouting much of Ohio, called Jacobs in to be part of a Detroit Pistons workout that featured Emoni Bates. Nothing came of the pre-draft workout other than a relationship.

Jacobs and Unger stayed in contact throughout the summer. The Cruise invited Jacobs to a local tryout to be held Sept. 14. He’d have to pay $250 like everyone else who didn’t want their hoops dreams to die. Jacobs didn’t have a guarantee, nor did he have the money. His agency, 540 Sports & Entertainment, which is based in Raleigh, N.C., covered the tryout fee and travel.

A little over a month later, Jacobs got the call that he’d be a professional basketball player. After impressing at the open tryout and at the team’s training camp, he was named to the official roster of the Cruise, who opened their season on Sunday.

Basketball ended up loving him back after all.

“The goal was to play professionally, but like I said, when I had the big break (in the summer) and didn’t know what was next, I was thinking about getting a job,” Jacobs said. “All my life, I’ve been in school and playing basketball. This August, I’m not doing anything. I’m working out. You have to have a strong mindset. It brought me down a little bit, but my circle kept me strong.”

It should be said that Jacobs isn’t a Joe Shmoe off the street. He was a good college player. Jacobs was named the Mid-American Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a senior. He averaged over double-digit points in three seasons at Kent State. He helped lead the Golden Flashes to just their second NCAA Tournament appearance since 2010. This isn’t a Cinderella Story, but thousands of players with Jacobs’ résumé or one better never get the chance to make a living playing basketball.

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Jacobs caught the eye of the Cruise’s front office before that pre-draft workout. He stayed in the back of their minds as they geared up for their season. The Cruise promised nothing except that a payment of $250 could give him another chance to show the organization what he can do.

“Going back to when he was playing in college, one of the big appeals for Malique was his ability to apply pressure on some of the really good offensive players,” Motor City general manager Ben Carloni told The Athletic. “He takes pride in that. He likes taking guys out of games. He wants to guard the best player every night. That stood out with us.”

Cruise head coach Jamelle McMillan went into the open tryout with an open mind but not expecting much. After all, anyone from the public can attend as long as they have the cash and can pass a background check. However, the Cruise’s front office mentioned to McMillan beforehand to keep an eye on Jacobs and let them know what he thinks.

“I was not very familiar at all,” McMillan told The Athletic. “As a coach, though, you try to go into all of those situations, draft workouts, tryouts, with an open mind, kind of ignorant to what’s going on so you can just feel what you feel about the guys without any preconceived notions about people. Malique is, you know, a guy I value because I got my opportunity on that side of the ball by just hawking people and creating an identity on that side. It generates a really cool spirit with your team. If you look around the league, those players get the crowd going.”

Kent State’s Malique Jacobs defends Eastern Michigan’s Emoni Bates last season. (Steven King / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Jacobs tried out on Sept. 14 and didn’t get the call until a month later that the Cruise wanted to bring him in for training camp. In between that time, Jacobs stayed busy thanks to his agency. He stayed with one of his agents in Orlando, where he also tried out for the Osceola Magic, the Orlando Magic’s G League team. He drove with his agent from Orlando to Mississippi State University in Starkville, Miss., to check out a player the agency was representing. He spent time working out in Miami. He had to go all the way back to Ohio because he lost his driver’s license and in Ohio “you can’t really get it sent through the mail, you have to be at a DMV to be there,” Jacobs said. As all of that was happening, Jacobs assumed he was going to have to work at some point. He pleaded with his agents to find him an overseas opportunity just so he could have some money but his agents told him to “trust the process.”

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Even when Jacobs got to training camp in Detroit, there were no promises. He didn’t even know if there was a roster spot available. Most G League teams are filled with Exhibit 10 spots well before G League training camp begins. Jacobs just knew that he had one more shot to achieve his dream of being a professional hooper.

“This was all step by step, day by day,” Jacobs said.

The Cruise purposely left one roster spot open going into camp to create competition. There were about five players battling it out for that last chair, aside from the possible outsiders that the big-brother ballclub could step in and demand get a spot.

Throughout the week-long camp, Jacobs continued to stand out with his on-ball pressure, the juice that came with it and his ability to make the simple plays on offense. By the end of camp, when it was time to make a formal decision, the Cruise couldn’t ignore how Jacobs made them feel each time he was on the court. He was everything that organization wants to be about.

“We told Malique that when he made the team that he earned this,” Carloni said. “This wasn’t something we planned. It’s not like we were just going to roster one of those five guys. We were obviously weighing a bunch of different things. But Malique was the guy. It was really impressive. We had no preconceived notions of, like, ‘This is going to happen.'”

Jacobs will make, at minimum, $40,500 this season for being on the Cruise’s roster. For some, that might not seem like it’s worth it. However, basketball is everything to Jacobs. It’s all he’s ever wanted to do. Jacobs can now say he’s a professional basketball player, and he gets paid to do what he loves.

Michelin Tires will always be there for him.

“It’s a gamble,” Jacobs said. “Even if they were to cut me now, I don’t know what I would be doing. It’s a gamble, but you just have to trust your process and bet on yourself.”

(Top photo courtesy of Motor City Cruise)

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