Welcome Home, Jameel
In his first three games with the NBA G-League’s Westchester Knicks, an affiliate of the NBA's New York Knicks, local product Jameel Warney is making his presence known as one of the team’s leading scorers. At the time of this evening’s tip off against the Memphis Hustle, Warney was the Knick’s second highest scorer, averaging 20.8 points per game behind teammate John Jenkins with a 24.8 points per game average. He is ranked among the top 25% of all 262 active NBA G-League players behind teammates Isaiah Hicks (top 15%) and John Jenkins (top 3%). With a roster populated by former college standouts from big-name basketball programs such as Arizona, Tennessee, North Carolina, Vanderbilt and UNLV, it is somewhat unexpected that a local player out of SUNY Stony Brook is performing so well.
In the January 16th match-up against his former teammates on the Texas Legends, Warney led the Westchester Knicks scoring effort by sinking 25 points in what was his second consecutive 20-point game. He scored 22 points in just his second game with the Knicks against the Salt Lake City Stars on January 14th after joining the team on January 8th in a swap for Xavier Rathan-Mayes. Warney played 22 games this season with the Texas Legends, the G-League affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks and has notably picked up his productivity since landing on the court of the Westchester County Center.
Raised in nearby New Brunswick, New Jersey and polishing his skills as a member of the AAU New Jersey Hot Shots and the Roselle Catholic High School basketball program under the tutelage of coach Dave Boff, Jameel completed his high school career in 2012 as the school’s all-time leading scorer. The next stop for Warney was the State University of New York at Stony Brook where, once again, he established himself as the program’s all-time leading scorer, the winningest player in school history, and also the all-time leader in rebounds, blocks and games played. He set a career high scoring record of 43 points in a game against the University of Vermont in 2016. So dominant was he at Stony Brook that the university retired his number, 20, at a home game ceremony in 2017.
The Westchester Knicks and their home-town fans are expecting big things from #34 and, given his history of playing a dominant role wherever he's been, he's sure not to disappoint.
