Former MSU star Jaren Jackson Jr. makes NBA history

Former Michigan State star Jaren Jackson Jr. has officially made NBA history as the first player to accomplish this feat.

Jaren Jackson Jr. has had an excellent career so far in the NBA. The former Michigan State star has been making a name for himself ever since he was drafted into the NBA in 2018. Fast forward five years and Jaren accomplished something nobody has ever done in the history of the NBA.

Jaren Jackson Jr. makes NBA history

Nobody in the history of the NBA has accumulated 5,000 points, 600 blocks, and 400 made 3-pointers within their first 300 games. That is until Jaren accomplished this feat during his last game.

5K trip.

⭐️: https://t.co/OQkEw7THEp pic.twitter.com/xdnqetfAla

— Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) December 27, 2023

To say Jaren has had a great NBA career so far would be an understatement. He was drafted No. 4 overall to the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2018 NBA Draft where he has played his entire career so far. Jackson is averaging 16.9 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 2.1 blocks per game over his career. However, he is currently having his best season so far. This season, Jackson Jr. is averaging 21.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.7 blocks per game. His point and assist averages are both career highs for him this year.

Jaren made the All-NBA Rookie team in his first season and is coming off his first All-Star selection in 2023. He also won Defensive Player of the Year last year, an award Draymond Green has won as well. Jackson also has led the league in blocks per game each of the last two seasons as well.

The Grizzlies as a team have also found a lot of success in recent years. They have made the playoffs each of the last three years, and have even been the 2-seed in the Western Conference the last two seasons. Unfortunately, they have been unable to make a deep playoff run only making it out of the first round once.

Memphis unfortunately is off to a slow start this season, currently sitting 13th in the West at 10-18.

Michigan State basketball career

Jackson spent one year in East Lansing before making the jump to the NBA. During his one season, he averaged an impressive 10.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game. However, the most impressive stat from his one season by far was his 3.0 blocks per game that he averaged. Jaren holds the MSU single season block record with 106 blocks. That is 29 more than second place which is held by Marcus Bingham Jr. who also is the all-time block record holder at MSU with 168. So Jaren likely only needed one more season to get that record as well.

MSU as a team during Jackson’s one season was as good of an MSU team as we have seen. The Spartans finished the season 30-5 and 16-2 in the Big Ten. MSU was crowned Big Ten champions and received the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. Unfortunately, this is where our great season came to a crashing end. The Spartans were upset by Michigan in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament and then lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament as a 3-seed to 11-seeded Syracuse.

Jaren Jackson Jr. will go down as one of the greatest Spartans of all time. Not only because of his great season at Michigan State but also because of his historic NBA career.