|
Hard as the world is to explain with the Almighty, it is harder yet without the Holy One. Moses Montefiore |
Jordan Robert Farmar (born November 30, 1986) is an American professional basketball point guard for Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Super League and Euroleague. He is also under contract with the New Jersey Nets, and is expected to return to the team after the 2011 NBA lockout ends.
In high school, he was the Los Angeles Times High-School Player of the Year in 2003–04. Playing for UCLA in college, he was the Rivals.com National Freshman of the Year in 2004–05. A first round draft pick by the Los Angeles Lakers, he was named to the NBA Rookie Team in 2006–07 and to the NBA Sophomore Team in 2007–08. He played for the Lakers from 2006–10, winning NBA Championships with them in 2009 and 2010.
Contents |
Farmar was born in Los Angeles, California, to his father Damon Farmar (a former minor league baseball outfielder who was a second round draft pick in both 1982 and 1983), and mother, Melinda. His parents divorced when he was 2, and he went to live with his mother, who soon met and married her current husband (Farmar's stepfather), Israeli Yehuda Kolani from Tel Aviv. Farmar and his mother and stepfather are Jewish. His father is African-American.
Farmar started playing basketball at age 4. Farmar inherited his competitive drive from his father and mentor, Damon Farmar, who played football and baseball at University High and baseball in the minor leagues. The younger Farmar spent hours in his father's clubhouses, with his father's teammates, and watching his father play. He learned from his stepfather what persistence and obligation are all about, noting that "I never met a person who worked so hard." Farmar has a half-sister, Shoshana Kolani. Farmar's godfather is former major league baseball player Eric Davis.
Farmar attended Portola Middle School and Temple Judea in Tarzana and Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, before transferring his sophomore year to Taft High School in Woodland Hills, a suburban community of the San Fernando Valley within Los Angeles.
At Taft High School, Farmar scored a record 54 points in a single game. As a junior, he averaged 28.5 points per game, 8.0 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 4.5 steals. As a senior, he averaged 27.5 points and 6.5 assists, and led Taft to the school's first Los Angeles City title. He had over 2,000 points in two seasons at Taft. Farmar was named the Los Angeles Times Player of the Year, LA City Co-Player of the Year, and California Interscholastic Federation Los Angeles City Section High School Player of the Year. He earned USA Today Super 25 selection, Parade Magazine 2nd-team All-American, Slam Magazine Honorable Mention All-American, CalHi Sports All-State honors, and the Southern California Jewish Athlete of the Year. He was a teammate with Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Steve Smith. Additionally, he was selected to play in the McDonald's High School All American game, where he scored 6 points and had 3 assists and 7 steals in 19 minutes of playing time.
Considered one of the elite point guards in the nation at UCLA, Farmar was named to the all Pac-10 team and the all Pac-10 Tournament team. As a freshman in 2004–05, Farmar was the Rivals.com National Freshman of the Year, and Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. He averaged 34.3 minutes (No. 2 on the team), 13.2 points (No. 2; No. 1 among freshman guards), a team-high 5.28 assists, and a team-high .801 (109–136) from the foul line. He led all Pac-10 freshmen in scoring, assists, free throw percentage and minutes played, and was second in steals.
In the 2006 NCAA Tournament, Farmar led the UCLA Bruins to the National Championship game against the Florida Gators, which they lost by a score of 73–57. Farmar led all scorers with 18 points, and finished with 2 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. Farmar made a notable steal and assist at the end of UCLA's Sweet Sixteen matchup with the Gonzaga Bulldogs, giving his team the lead for good after an impressive comeback effort. On April 20, 2006, he declared for the NBA Draft.
Farmar impressed NBA scouts at the pre-draft combine with a vertical leap, the highest of any player there. Later, he was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 26th pick in the NBA draft, which was acquired from Miami in a trade for Shaquille O'Neal. On July 8, 2006, he made his debut at the Summer Pro League, which was held at the Walter Pyramid. His final game totals were 17 points and 3 assists in 31 minutes of play.
For most of the 2006-07 NBA season, Farmar played backup to Smush Parker. On March 31, 2007, Farmar was assigned to the Lakers' D-League team, the Los Angeles D-Fenders. On April 1, Farmar scored 18 points in a 109–101 home loss against the Anaheim Arsenal. Later on that afternoon, he was re-called by the Lakers to play against the visiting Sacramento Kings. Farmar added 4 points and 4 rebounds in 7:38 minutes playing time, helping the Lakers take a home victory, thereby making history by becoming the first player ever to participate in both a D-League and an NBA game on the same day. On April 15, 2007 against the Seattle SuperSonics, Farmar got his first professional career start, replacing Smush Parker in the starting lineup. Along with two starts in the regular season, Farmar started all five playoff games at point guard. In those games against first round opponent the Phoenix Suns, he averaged 6.4 ppg and 1.2 spg against Steve Nash.
With the departure of Smush Parker, Aaron McKie, and Shammond Williams, the Lakers lacked a point guard. Therefore, with their 1st selection in the 2007 NBA Draft the Los Angeles Lakers selected point guard Javaris Crittenton, who was later traded to the Memphis Grizzlies. As a result, during the summer and fall of 2007 Farmar became a denizen of the team training facility, working on his shot from June through September. He knew his job was in jeopardy with a new point guard in town, and knew he had to work to keep his position within the organization. His hard work paid off, and he averaged 9.1 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game, in 20.6 minutes per game, as the backup to veteran point guard Derek Fisher, who made his return to the Lakers. He played in all 82 games in the 2007–08 season, and shot 46.1% from the field, 3.9% up from the prior season, as well as 37.1% from three-point range, 4.3% up from the prior season. "I'm just trying to shorten [my shot], square my shoulders up and just knock it down," Farmar said. "It's all hand-eye coordination, and I believe in my ability." He had a career high of 24 points in a game against the Miami Heat.
On December 24, 2008, Farmar underwent surgery to repair a torn lateral meniscus in his left knee after suffering an injury in a game against the Miami Heat. He was expected to miss 8 weeks. Farmar was averaging 7.9 points and 2.4 assists before his injury. On January 25, 2009, Farmar returned to action nearly a month earlier than expected, recording 14 points and 2 assists against San Antonio.
After winning two championship rings with his hometown Los Angeles Lakers, Farmar agreed to a three-year, $12 million contract with the New Jersey Nets on July 14, 2010.
On August 3, 2011, Farmar signed a one-year contract with the Israeli champion basketball team Maccabi Tel Aviv, in the wake of the 2011 NBA lockout. Farmar was very excited to go to Tel Aviv, because his step-father is from the city, he spent time there as a child, and he said it is a beautiful beach city. Because Farmar is Jewish, he is eligible to obtain Israeli citizenship, which he indicated he would apply for. If he becomes an Israeli citizen, he will be considered an Israeli player, and thereby avoid being counted against the Israeli league's limit of four non-Israeli players per team. He would also be eligible to play for the Israel national basketball team in the Olympics and other international competitions.
Farmar began playing for the team when its season began on October 1, and will play for it as long as the lockout continues. His teammates include former All-American Duke guard Jon Scheyer, who joined the team in June. In the first week of November 2011, he won Euroleague Player of the Week honors after a 27-point game against Real Madrid.
|- | style="text-align:left;"| 2006–07 | style="text-align:left;"| L.A. Lakers | 72 || 2 || 15.1 || .422 || .328 || .711 || 1.7 || 1.9 || .6 || .1 || 4.4 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2007–08 | style="text-align:left;"| L.A. Lakers | 82 || 0 || 20.6 || .461 || .371 || .679 || 2.2 || 2.7 || .9 || .1 || 9.1 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2008–09 | style="text-align:left;"| L.A. Lakers | 65 || 0 || 18.3 || .391 || .336 || .584 || 1.8 || 2.4 || .9 || .2 || 6.4 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2009–10 | style="text-align:left;"| L.A. Lakers | 82 || 0 || 18.0 || .435 || .376 || .671 || 1.6 || 1.5 || .6 || .1 || 7.2 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2010–11 | style="text-align:left;"| New Jersey | 73 || 18 || 24.6 || .392 || .359 || .820 || 2.4 || 5.0 || .8 || .1 || 9.6 |- | style="text-align:left;"| Career | style="text-align:left;"| | 374 || 20 || 19.4 || .421 || .359 || .698 || 1.9 || 2.7 || .8 || .1 || 7.4
|- | style="text-align:left;"| 2006–07 | style="text-align:left;"| L.A. Lakers | 5 || 5 || 22.8 || .429 || .200 || .857 || 2.8 || 1.6 || 1.2 || .2 || 6.4 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2007–08 | style="text-align:left;"| L.A. Lakers | 21 || 0 || 17.1 || .383 || .386 || .875 || 1.6 || 1.3 || .3 || .2 || 5.7 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2008–09 | style="text-align:left;"| L.A. Lakers | 20 || 1 || 13.0 || .391 || .308 || .737 || 1.6 || 1.7 || .4 || .2 || 4.7 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2009–10 | style="text-align:left;"| L.A. Lakers | 23 || 0 || 13.1 || .404 || .400 || .692 || 1.2 || 1.4 || .7 || .0 || 4.6 |- | style="text-align:left;"| Career | style="text-align:left;"| | 69 || 6 || 15.0 || .395 || .357 || .782 || 1.5 || 1.4 || .6 || .1 || 5.1
Farmar has a tattoo on his left arm of him with his arm around his little half-sister, while the words "just the two of us" surround them. He also has a tattoo across his back that reads "Farmar." He is a Barack Obama supporter, and attended a fundraiser for Obama in Orange County, California.
In August 2008 Farmar spent a week in Israel leading a basketball camp for Israeli and Palestinian children, getting them to play on the same team and to, at least for a few moments, leave all their differences aside.
Farmar started Hoop Farm, a basketball camp he leads at UCLA that encourages children to be eco-friendly.
Farmar joined the Chabad Telethon in September 2008, and shot free-throws as a fundraiser. “Jordan is a real mensch,” said Rabbi Chaim Cunin, executive producer of the telethon and CEO of Chabad of California. “He raised $66,600 in 90 seconds. He made 37 free throws in 90 seconds.
In the summer of 2009 he hosted the first annual Jordan Farmar Celebrity Golf Classic at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, with proceeds benefiting the Jordan Farmar Foundation, which is run by his mother and primarily helps at-risk youths and children undergoing cancer treatment at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA.
Jordan Farmar
Found error in text? Please select it and press CTRL-ENTER
© 2008-2025, JewAge.org
Discussion
Please log in / register, to leave a comment