Worlds apart
San Diego's Rob Jones thriving on and off court
TAMPA - The statistics suggest nothing unusual: 30 starts in 33 games, almost 26 minutes per game, and averages of 8.8 points and 5.8 rebounds. Not bad for a 6-foot-6-inch freshman forward.
Say hello to Rob Jones. His 13th-seeded University of San Diego Toreros will try to extend their season this afternoon at the St. Pete Times Forum when they take on No. 4 seed Connecticut in a West Regional first-round game.
Still nothing to raise an eyebrow about, right? A solid player on a team that didn't figure to be here, but earned a spot with an upset over Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference tournament final.
But probe a little further and you discover a family that includes his father, Jim Jones Jr.
Which means there was a Jim Jones Sr., and then it comes together.
Jim Jones. Jonestown.
Even in a world where tragedies occur on a regular basis, the day almost 30 years ago - Nov. 18, 1978 - still sends a chill.
Guyana, South America. A cult leader named Jim Jones brought his people together for the final time, and enticed them, ordered them, to drink Flavor Aid laced with cyanide, which resulted in the deaths of 918, including Jim Jones Sr. and the pregnant wife of Jim Jones Jr.
But not Jim Jones Jr., who was elsewhere, playing basketball in an organized game his father viewed with disdain but tolerated.
Jim Jones Jr. survived that day and slowly rebuilt his life, a life he says was saved by basketball and that produced three sons from his second marriage, including Rob.
The sins of the grandfather are not the grandson's, but Rob Jones is aware of his heritage and acknowledges his family's past, while trying to focus on the future, which he hopes will include basketball.
"If it wasn't for basketball, I wouldn't be talking right now," Jim Jones Jr. told the St. Petersburg Times. "I would be dead. And I mean that literally."
Jones Jr. was in Georgetown, 250 miles from Jonestown, when the mass suicide occurred.
The story of the
"Playing basketball was a big thing for us," Jim Jones Jr. told the St. Petersburg Times. "I had to convince my father to even let us build a basketball court at Jonestown. My father saw it as an act of rebellion. Basketball was an organized sport. It was part of the establishment. My father was against anything like that. But finally, after many arguments, we convinced him."
During the mass suicide, Jones Jr. received a call from his father. "He then told us what was going on, and he asked us [the basketball team] to kill ourselves," Jones Jr. said. "I didn't believe him. Then we argued . . . That was the last I heard from him."
Jones Jr. tried to pick up the pieces of his life when he returned to the United States, but without basketball.
"I was ashamed to play. I was guilty I was alive because of basketball and my wife and friends were dead," Jones Jr. said. "Basketball saved my life, but so many others had died. I felt guilty for that."
Time healed some of the wounds, and when Jones Jr.'s first son, Rob, was born, he developed his own affinity for basketball, unaware of the role the sport had played in his family's past.
"I play for the team on the front of my jersey," said Rob Jones, who turned down football scholarship offers from Oregon and California to play basketball at San Diego.
"But the name on my back is my motivation."
Rob Jones says he was first told of what happened in Jonestown when he was in the third grade. When he was a junior at San Francisco's Archbishop Riordan High School, Jones remembers sitting in a class in which cult groups were being discussed. Jonestown was mentioned and he simply raised his hand and said, "That was me, my family."
Jones talks dispassionately about what happened, but he never denies his connection.
"It's just a story to me," he said. "Older people have heard about it more than I have. My dad has had to deal with it his whole life. It's something we deal with, but it's not something we sit at the dinner table and talk about every night."
When his son plays today, Jim Jones Jr. will be in San Francisco watching on television. "My mom had foot surgery and someone needs to help with my two younger brothers," said Rob Jones.
He says he is happy to be in the NCAA Tournament, although it figures to be a short stay. Jones says it has been a fun season.
Brandon Johnson, a junior guard who leads the Toreros in scoring at 16.9 points per game, has seen Jones develop from a prospect to a player.
"Rob Jones has been a big deal to our program," said Johnson. "Right now, he's playing great. He's matured so much over the last couple of games. He's helped us."
Jones says his football playing days are over and basketball is now his sport, just like it was the sport of his father 30 years ago.
"Without basketball, I wouldn't be here," said Rob Jones, echoing the words of the father. "It saved my life."
Mark Blaudschun can be reached at blaudschun@globe.com.
