Gaels' Rob Jones Blazing a Trail To NBA Against All Odds

Rob Jones started playing basketball at Oddstad Elementary School in Park Pacifica, exhibiting early dedication to the sport by walking across fields after school to the Boys and Girls Club for more practice.

Now, at 22, he stands 6’6” tall and leads Saint Mary’s College in rebounds, second in points. Jones and his team just missed a bid in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

“He’s an all-conference type forward who can score and rebound,” Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett said of the power forward. “He has made leadership strides and become a harder worker, though he already was a hard worker.”

Two of Jones’ tattoos illustrate his values and interests. A cross on his right arm is decorated with a crown on top and the word “Jones” in the middle. On his left arm is a basketball across which is written “My Passion.”

The game may have been Jones’s earthly savior, too. 

His father, Jim Jones Jr., is the adopted son of the People’s Temple founder, who in 1978 in Jonestown, Guyana, led one of the largest mass suicides ever. More than 900 followers died - including Jim’s parents, wife and unborn child.

Jim, then 18, lived to father Rob and his two younger brothers, Ryan and Ross, because he was out of town playing in a basketball tournament.

“I might not be here if it weren’t for basketball, so I have got to pay my respects to the game,” said Rob, who was raised in Park Pacifica from the age of 2. Jim would eventually coach Rob, picking up a basketball for the first time since Jonestown, and Jim and Erin are fixtures at all of Rob's games.

“He knows when we walk in during warmups. He’ll look up,” Jim said. 

For Rob, playing close to home is comfortable. Even when he misses a shot or commits a turnover, he knows he has unconditional love in the stands behind the basket, ready to walk onto the court after the game to give him a hug.

On weekends, he leaves Moraga and makes the 45-minute drive to Pacifica to visit family, friends and places that shaped his life — or as Jim said, the village that raised little Rob. 

“Pacifica has a real nice community environment,” said Rob, a junior majoring in sociology. “You can keep things out on the lawn and people won’t mess with them.”

His childhood memories center around Park Pacifica and Linda Mar. Terra Nova day care. Frontierland Park. Upper Crust Deli, where mornings before school days he’d have a toasted plain bagel topped with cream cheese and bacon (and where Jim still has a tab). The old Wendy’s. Little League baseball. Dances at the Pacifica Community Center. The beach, of course. 

“We’d ride our bikes all around Pacifica, from the back of the valley to the beach,” Rob said.

He began to spend more time in San Francisco when he transferred to Saint Stephens School there in the fifth grade. His parents sought a parochial-focused education for Rob, and Good Shepherd School in Pacifica was already at full enrollment. Rob then joined AAU teams in San Francisco. 

By high school at Archbishop Riordan, Rob was winning both games and awards, and not just in basketball. Famous college coaches called him at home to make scholarship offers for football. He was also a highly touted tight end, lettering in football at Riordan. University of Southern California, Cal, Oregon and Notre Dame recruited heavily for Rob to play football, which to him was more of a recreational sport.

Basketball? He could try out for the team at the colleges if he wanted to play. 

Even Rob’s high school basketball coach said he’d never make it in the sport that he loved, the sport so important to his being, the sport he plays with such ferocity and passion.

“Throughout high school, everybody was telling me what to do,” said Rob. “The only one who really believed in me was myself.” 

He ended up being recruited by mid-major basketball schools such as St. Mary's and University of San Diego.

For Rob’s senior year at Saint Mary’s, Coach Bennett said he will move from power forward to small forward, a position better suited to his size, especially in professional basketball. Bennett said Rob will have a good chance to make the NBA if he continues to make strides in his leadership skills and basketball IQ.  

While Rob won’t rule out the NFL completely, especially if offers come his way, he plans to fight for his shot to play basketball. If not in the NBA, then overseas. But he is committed for life to basketball as his passion.

“Whatever situation is best for me in the future, I’m always pushing for what I believe in,” he said. “Worse comes to worse, I’ll be involved in basketball somehow, even if it means I have to be a water boy for a college team.”