Aaron Jackson: From Duquesne Star To EuroLeague Champion And Global Pro
Explore the journey of Aaron Jackson, from his standout college days at Duquesne to winning titles in Europe and playing around the world, including in Russia, China, Israel, and the NBA.
Jul 25, 202537 Shares36.7K Views
Aaron Lee Jackson was born on May 6, 1986, in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. He attended Northwest Catholic High School in West Hartford, where he helped the basketball team win two Connecticut state championships and earned first‑team all‑state honors in his final year, averaging 18.0 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 6.0 assists per game. After graduating, he spent one postgraduate year at Worcester Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts, where under coach Mo Cassara he averaged 14.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 8.0 assists per game. His strong performance at Worcester helped him gain attention from NCAA Division I schools and led to his recruitment by Duquesne University.
College Career
Aaron Jacksonjoined Duquesne University in 2005 during one of the toughest periods in the program's history; the team finished 3–24 in his freshman year. Nonetheless, he started 21 of 27 games, ranking second on the team in assists and steals, and third in assist‑to‑turnover ratio within the conference.
In his sophomore season, after a campus shooting and a full roster rebuild, Jackson played in every game. He averaged 11 points, 5 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.4 steals per game, ranking among the top 10 in the conference in assists and steals.
His junior season saw Duquesne achieve its first winning record since 1994. Jackson led the team in minutes and assists and scored in double figures most games. He averaged 9 points and 4 rebounds per game, with several games featuring 5+ rebounds.
In his senior season, Jackson was the only upperclassman on a young team with seven freshmen. He started every game, led the team in scoring and assists (setting a school record with 194 assists), and ranked in the top five in the conference across seven categories including scoring, assists, steals, and minutes. He had the best season Duquesne had seen in decades, with a 21–13 record, the school's first 20‑win season since 1981. He also earned first‑team All‑Atlantic 10, NABC All‑District 4 first team, and was named A‑10 Most Improved Player.
Jackson finished as Duquesne’s 12th all‑time leading scorer with 1,428 points, third in career assists with 505, sixth in steals with 169, and seventh in field‑goal percentage at .521, while never missing a game across 120 consecutive appearances. His college career ended memorably with a 46‑point performance in a double‑overtime NIT loss to Virginia Tech, tying for the fourth‑highest single‑game points mark in school history.
Professional Career
Aaron Jackson began his pro basketball journey in 2009–10 in Turkey with Antalya BB, after leaving Duquesne and completing college. The next season, in 2010, he moved to Virtus Bologna in Italy before signing a two-year deal with Bilbao Basket in Spain’s top league Liga ACB in the summer of 2010.
During his first year with Bilbao (2010–11), he led the team to a surprising run that reached the playoff final, including an upset win over Real Madrid. He played the most minutes of anyone in those playoffs and ranked among the top ten in scoring, rebounding, assists, and steals for the postseason. In his second season with Bilbao, he was named the fifth best point guard in the ACB and helped his team reach the playoffs again, though they lost in the first round. He had standout games in EuroLeague competition, including a Top 16 MVP performance with 15 points and 10 assists in a key win over Real Madrid.
In 2012, Aaron Jackson signed with CSKA Moscow, where he played for five seasons (2012–17). With CSKA, he won the EuroLeague title in 2016, and also captured the VTB United League championships from 2013 to 2017 each year.
In 2017, Jackson moved to China, joining the Beijing Ducks. He reportedly signed a two-year deal worth $2.3 million per season and served as the backup guard to Stephon Marbury. After a season, in mid‑2018 he joined the Houston Rockets and played in the NBA briefly, making his official debut in early April 2018.
He returned to China later in 2018, re-signing with the Beijing Ducks. In 2019, he signed with the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions, continuing his time in the Chinese league. At the end of 2019, he went to Israel and joined Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv for the rest of the 2019–20 season, appearing in around a dozen EuroLeague games and averaging about 4.3 points, 1.7 assists, and 1.6 rebounds per game.
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