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OAKLAND — Big Jay would have loved watching his son this basketball season.
He would have loved the thunderous dunks, the steals, the assists and everything else Marsalis Roberson did to help Bishop O’Dowd win all those games.
“This was his dream and goals for me,” Marsalis said.
Jason Roberson, a barber in Sacramento known as Big Jay because of his 6-foot-6 stature, died Oct. 8, 2017 — gunned down by a gang member who was convicted of second-degree murder for the crime.
Marsalis was a freshman at the time, living with his dad and attending Natomas High.
He returned to the Bay Area to reside with his mother, Brenaia Roberson, an academic advisor at Cal.
She enrolled Marsalis at O’Dowd because the Catholic school tucked away in the Oakland hills provided what she considered a safe environment for her grieving son.
Marsalis says he knew nothing about O’Dowd’s rich basketball history when he left Sacramento for Oakland, except that Ivan Rabb had gone there. Rabb propelled the Dragons to the Open Division state championship in 2015 before moving on to Cal.
All-Bay Area Preps HQ boys, girls basketball teams
O’Dowd became a pleasant haven for Marsalis — in the classroom and on the basketball court. The 6-5 junior led the Bay Area’s top-ranked team in scoring and rebounding this season, one that ended with O’Dowd set to play Sheldon of Sacramento for the Northern California Open Division championship when officials canceled the remainder of the playoffs because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In an area loaded with talent — including on his own team — Roberson rose to the head of the class. He is the Bay Area Preps HQ’s player of the year, as selected by the Bay Area News Group’s high school staff.
“He is not scared of the moment,” O’Dowd coach Lou Richie said. “He’s never been scared to step up to the plate, which is what you saw in all his big games this year.”
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When Roberson arrived at O’Dowd, Richie found himself in uncharted waters. He had players in his program who have lost fathers but none so fresh as what the new freshman on campus was going through.
Richie decided that Roberson had to put basketball on the backburner.
“For me, it was let him be a student,” Richie said. “O’Dowd is not easy. Let him acclimate and deal with the socialization and deal with living with his mom all over again. Don’t rush the athletic piece but help him socially, emotionally and academically.”
Brenaia Roberson considers Richie a godsend, one of the influential figures in her son’s life.
“He’s really been not only a coach but a mentor,” she said. “Just a positive male figure inside the school and outside of the school, to help him deal with just being a young black man and processing his emotions and helping him to try to better communicate. Be a student scholar and stay focused.”
Roberson played on the junior varsity as a freshman, followed by a reserve role on the varsity last season.
But even then, Richie could tell Roberson was unique.
During one game at a showcase in Napa Valley, Roberson took it upon himself to do push-ups and calf exercises from the bench because he was unable to play.
Richie had never seen that.
“I was injured during that game, so I had to do something,” said Roberson, who described his workouts as therapeutic.
“I never went to counseling for anything,” he added. “It’s just my therapy. It made me feel good.”
O’Dowd fell short of postseason glory when Roberson was a sophomore, losing to Moreau Catholic in a North Coast Section final and James Logan in the semifinals of the NorCal Division I regional.
But the seeds for this season were planted back then.
“A different and determined player after the Logan game,” Richie said of Roberson. “I’ve never seen a switch turn on like that where he just wanted to be dominant. Not just athletically but academically, socially — wanting to be a leader. It was never about Marsalis and what he could do on the court. It was, ‘I want my team to win.'”
The emergence was no surprise to Roberson’s uncle, Faraji Edwards, who has helped train his nephew since seventh grade and never misses one of his games.
Rather than play middle school basketball, which Edwards considered a waste of time, Roberson worked on his skills with a trio of coaches that included Ron Nelson, the father of former Duke and Golden State Warriors point guard DeMarcus Nelson.
The goal was to get Roberson ready to make an impact on varsity as a freshman, which he seemed poised to do after scoring 40 points in one of Natomas’ varsity scrimmages.
“Then that’s when the tragedy happened with his dad,” said Edwards, a former varsity head coach at Johnson High in Sacramento.
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Roberson’s presence this season was team-first. Richie wanted him to pass the ball to get others involved because, well, the lineup included 6-5 senior Monty Bowser, who signed with Cal, and 6-9 freshman Jalen Lewis, a budding superstar.
“Marsalis deferred and then he started getting smart because he realized if I get steals, I don’t have to pass the ball,” Richie said. “That’s why he started playing the passing lanes and you see him with so many breakaway dunks. Next year, he and Jalen will absolutely explode.”
Even with pass-first instructions, Roberson averaged 16.45 points and 6.34 rebounds — both team-highs — to go with 3.03 assists. He also led the Dragons in a metric they call stat-points, which combines categories such as made shots, missed shots, assists and turnovers into one number.
Richie didn’t mention any of those statistics when asked about Roberson’s strengths. He simply said work ethic and coachability, which Edwards has witnessed for years.
“His mother and father instilled please and thank you in him at a young age,” Edwards said. “He was always a very, very polite kid. You saw him oozing with potential. His dad was 6-6. You knew he was going to be tall. Marsalis was amazing even as a kid, as far as picking stuff up and being very coachable.”
On game days, the determination didn’t stop when the buzzer sounded. More than a few times this season, even on school nights, Roberson asked his grandfather, Malgy Blue, to take him to 24-hour Fitness immediately after games because he needed to improve.
“That intrinsic motivation, he gets it,” Richie said.
And what would Big Jay think about all this?
“I think he’d be proud of me,” said Roberson, who also received player of the year honors in the West Alameda County Conference’s Foothill League. “I don’t think he’d be surprised because I feel like my whole family knew this would come with hard work.”
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Boys players of the year since 2009-10
2019-20
Bay Area Preps HQ: Marsalis Roberson, Bishop O’Dowd
2018-19
Bay Area News Group: Brett Thompson, James Logan
2017-18
Bay Area News Group: James Akinjo, Salesian
2016-17
South Bay/Peninsula: Jake Wojcik, Bellarmine
East Bay: Damari Milstead, Moreau Catholic
2015-16
Mercury News: Jake Killingsworth, Serra
East Bay: Jordan Ratinho, De La Salle
2014-15
Mercury News: Ben Kone, Archbishop Mitty
East Bay: Ivan Rabb, Bishop O’Dowd
2013-14
Mercury News: Frankie Ferrari, Burlingame
East Bay: Ivan Rabb, Bishop O’Dowd
2012-13
Mercury News: Aaron Gordon, Archbishop Mitty
East Bay: Jabari Bird, Salesian
2011-12
Mercury News: Aaron Gordon, Archbishop Mitty
East Bay: Jabari Bird, Salesian
2010-11
Mercury News: Aaron Gordon, Archbishop Mitty
East Bay: Roderick Bobbitt, Castro Valley
2009-10
Mercury News: Tyler Johnson, St. Francis
East Bay: John McArthur, De La Salle
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