True greatness in sports is undisputed.
You can argue about how good certain athletes are in any sport, but once you see one really Great player, no doubt about it. This is obvious and self-evident.
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I’ve been asked many times who is the greatest UCF athlete I’ve ever seen, and my answer is always the same: Jermaine Taylor.
You may not know anything about basketball, but if you watch Jermaine play a game, you’ll see that he is hands down the best player on the court every night. His greatness on the field is so effortless, so effortless, that it’s easy to take it for granted.
I like to joke that no one gets dunked on by Jermaine Taylor more than me. In 2008-2009, I returned to UCF to attend Jermaine’s senior class. I was tasked with running the court camera under the basket in front of the student area. Jermaine had at least one “Knightmare” breakaway dunk in every game that year, and I got the best shot of the night, like against John Calipari’s Memphis Tigers:
Take a deep dive into Jermaine Taylor on YouTube and you’ll find many of these moments, including his career at UCF and in the NBA and G-League.
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But to me, it’s the story behind the dunk that makes JT worthy of having his jersey retired at UCF.
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Highlights are one thing, but JT has the resume:
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UCF’s all-time Division I scorer with 1,979 points
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UCF Division I single-game scoring record 45 points
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UCF’s single-season scoring record at all levels in 2008-09 is 812 points
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He holds two of the highest scoring totals in UCF DI history
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UCF’s single-season scoring average in 2008-09 was 26.2 points
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He is the only player in the top ten in the DI era and has the top two players in the single-season average in the DI era.
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Most shots on goal in DI history (3rd, regardless of era)
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Second-most 3-pointers in UCF history
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Maximum of 20 games in a season (24 out of 31 games)
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Most career games played: 20 (50 of 122 career games)
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Most 30-point games in a season (10)
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Most career 30-point games (14)
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2009 American League Player of the Year
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Only Mark Jones has ever won Player of the Year as a Cavalier in the A-Sun
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2009 Associated Press All-America Honorable Mention
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Second UCF player selected in NBA draft
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First UCF player to participate in NBA regular season game
The only guy ahead of JT on UCF’s all-time roster is Bo Clark, whose number already hangs in the rafters with his father and coach, Torchy.
Unfortunately we don’t have any of Bo’s movies, but we do have Jermaine’s videos. Unfortunately it’s quite old and quite far away, but it’s still spectacular:
Are Instagram, TikTok and even YouTube being Then what are they NowJT would become a viral phenomenon.
But the most important thing to me is what JT means off the court.
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story
JT is a Central Florida kid. Originally from Tavares, he ultimately chose the University of Central Florida over offers from other higher-profile schools and stayed there for four years. No one would blame him if he left the University of Central Florida, sat out a year, and played at Florida State or Alabama. But he didn’t do that.
I hadn’t met him the first three years, but when I met him before my senior year, I was surprised by his humility. He was almost unwilling to accept the attention he received that year. While he was low-key off the court, he was anything but modest on the court.
During his senior year, he unleashed hell.
26 points per game. Hit rate 48%. The three-point shooting percentage was 38%. 82% offline.
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When UCF’s team was hobbled by multiple injuries to other key players, Jermaine did his best to stem the tide, averaging 35.1 points in UCF’s final seven games.
His best game was the loss to Rice: 14/29 from the field, 5/13 from 3-point range, 12/13 from the foul line for 45 points, 26 of UCF’s 30 points in the second half.
But the numbers don’t do him justice. We came into the arena every night wondering what crazy thing he was going to do, and then he transcended that.
However, despite all he did, UCF failed to make the NCAA Tournament.
Some might see this as a scar on his career, but I don’t think so. I think it’s a reminder of how ephemeral sports can be. Even if you can be the best you can be by far, sometimes that’s still not enough. But this shouldn’t be your legacy. Your legacy is what you leave on the stage. He left everything.
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He was then selected in the second round of the NBA draft.
Jermaine’s career is a case study in how difficult it is to be a professional athlete. He only played 65 games in the NBA because he just wanted to play ball. So he asked to play in the NBA G League.
He averaged 14 points per game in seven seasons in the G League, including 24 points per game in 2012-13 with the Maine Red Claws. From Texas to Maine to Utah to Spain, China and New Zealand, Jermaine proved what we already knew: He’s one of the most explosive human barrels in the sport.
But the dream of full-time NBA domination didn’t come true.
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JT spent a few seasons in the Big3 and once again kept scoring, this time against many NBA veterans.
Still, two devastating knee injuries and a fate that alienated him from stardom.
Even with all the talent in the world, sometimes life doesn’t give you the break you want. And it hurts. But what really matters is how you play the hand. In the ultra-competitive world of professional basketball, achieving such an achievement is a miracle in itself.
Jermaine returned to the University of Central Florida, pursuing his degree while helping the basketball program and working tirelessly to make things better for the kids in his hometown of Tavares. You can still find him sitting near the bench at UCF basketball games today, cheering on his Cavaliers.
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To me, this is the core of legacy: Do you leave the world a better place than you found it?
JT has done it.
He’s already inducted into the UCF Athletics Hall of Fame, but even that prestigious honor doesn’t fully represent how important a figure he was in UCF basketball history.
Fate did not allow him to get the recognition many of us thought he deserved at the professional level. Oddly enough, a man who goes head-to-head with a legend of the game almost blends into the background.
But luckily, we at his alma mater can do something about it. I think we should.
Jermaine Taylor stands at the pinnacle of what it takes to be a great UCF Knight. The student-athlete’s journey is a long one no way Even though they ended their careers at UCF, it went well. But Jermaine was endowed with extraordinary gifts—talent, courage, humility, selflessness—and he did his best to share them with all of us for the good of the university we all love so dearly.
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That’s why we should build on his legacy and elevate his No. 1 title to the rafters at Addition Financial Arena.
