On November 6, 2015, the Call of Duty franchise duty released Black Ops III, the 12th Call of Duty game and the third installment in the Black Ops series. Games like COD: Ghosts and COD: Infinite Warfare have been released since then, but a fourth Black Ops game was rumored for a while. It's been nearly three years now, but Treyarch and Activision are getting set to release Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 in October of 2018.
Fans around the world are getting hyped for the new game in the Black Ops series, which featured an intriguing storyline following a CIA operative named Alex Mason in the first couple of games as well as a fascinating zombies and online mode. Among the large fanbase are some of the world's most talented and popular athletes, like Memphis Grizzlies' big man Jaren Jackson Jr.
Jackson was selected fourth overall by the Grizzlies in the 2018 NBA Draft, and immediately made a name for himself in Summer League, averaging 11.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and a whopping 3.8 blocks across five games. In 35 games with the Michigan State Spartans last season, he averaged 10.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 3.0 blocks per game in. just 21.8 minutes per game. Now, he's hoping to help stars Marc Gasol and Mike Conley lead Memphis back into the playoffs. Jackson Jr. spoke with ClutchPoints as Black Ops 4 is set to release about Call of Duty, video games, his rookie season, the draft process, and much more.
Tomer Azarly: How big of a gamer are you?
Jaren Jackson Jr.: Oh, I'm a big gamer. I'm not always the best at it. I have friends that are really good and they would always play heavily. They'd rage and throw the controller. When I was young, I would always game like that after school, when I could, around practice with my teammates, on the road. It was always something I did.
TA: So you've been playing video games pretty much since your childhood?
JJJ: Yeah, I've been playing games for a long time. I remember playing GameBoy. I'm young, so GameCube was in my era, GameBoy, nd Nintendo DS.a Nintendo 64 wasn't really me, but all I had all that stuff. And then it got to Xbox, Playstation all that was great.
TA: I take it you're a big fan of the Call of Duty franchise?
JJJ: Oh, for sure! For sure!
TA: So what's your favorite mode of the game? Is it the campaign? Is it the zombies? Multiplayer?
JJJ: Multiplayer is always the most fun. I think I did campaign like a couple times, maybe when it was a newer game that came out. I definitely did the Modern Warfare 2 campaign because Modern Warfare 2 is just amazing. But multiplayer is always the thing that you play with your friends. And the combat training, I remember doing that with my friends when they were at the crib just trying to get 100 kills. Lotta fun.
Oh, I remember Black Ops. That was just one of my favorite franchises ever in Black Ops. Oh my God. I remember Nuketown.
TA: What's your favorite class? Are you an assault rifle guy? Shotgun? Sniper?
JJJ: I'm a light-machine gun guy. The AK is good, but my favorite gun was probably the Famas, AK-47 was usually good. MP5K was always light. You started out with MP5K so ironically, that was like a really good gun.
TA: There's a lot of options, but what's your favorite game from the franchise?
JJJ: I think I probably had the most fun playing Black Ops 1, but I think the best game is probably Modern Warfare 2. I think that's probably the best game. At the time, I wasn't even that good at Call of Duty, but I still had fun playing.
TA: Are there any good friends in the NBA or players in general that are big gamers as well?
JJJ: Yeah, Miles [Bridges] at Michigan State. He's on Charlotte [Hornets] now, but he played, like, so much Call of Duty. He played a lot at home, he played a lot of Zombies. I like Zombies, but I would only play Zombies if I had to kill a lot of time. If you know how the game goes, it takes a lot of time. They play a lot of other games too. By the way, shoutout to High-rise on Modern Warfare 2, because that was one of my favorite maps ever.
TA: You've had a chance to play and try it out a bit. What are you initial impressions of the game?
JJJ: I think it's really clean. The fact that there's no more jumping and stuff kind of like that. I would forget to jump a lot. People are flying all over the place and its like oh my gosh. gets you frustrated but taking that out kind of makes it a little more like the old days. I do wish there were saws (M-249 saws is a weapon), but they kind of make up for it with the other kill streaks the more you look at how they really work. The special abilities and different people you pick. I like the healing. when you first hear about the healing, it's kind of like, ‘Oh man, you have to heal now?' but its kind of cool. You can heal quicker if you do it at a good time. The new class system thats been going on for a while is cool, gives you more options to be more dynamic.
TA: What makes Call of Duty stand out from the first person shooters?
JJJ: Well, Call of Duty kind of like set the tone for a lot of first person shooters. Call of Duty listens to their fans too. They never really change the root of the game too much, and if they do, they realize it and they'll fix it. The jumping stuff… Some people liked it, some people hated it. It was a slick move, and I think they understood that they can't keep it in every game, so I think it ran its course.
TA: If you had to pick your NBA gaming squad, who are you picking?
JJJ: Me, Miles, Jerome Robinson from the Clippers. That's my guy, he's a beast, like for real. and I'm gonna pick Deandre [Ayton]. He's good. He's not better than everybody, but he plays really intense, like he gets really into the game so I know I can count on him. So I'm picking me, Miles, Deandre, and Jerome. That's my squad, that's who I'm going to video game war with.
TA: I want to shift over to a little basketball now. It's been a few months since the draft, can you go back and recall what this entire experience was like for you?
JJJ: It was a whirlwind. It went by really quick. I look at all the moments and sometimes you have to sit down and think like, man, this is really happening. It's something we've been working for, everybody in the draft, has been working for our entire lives. Now that we're here in this position, we've continuing to grind, continuing to be hungry, and just always living in the gym.
TA: You were drafted fourth by the Grizzlies. How do you feel you fit with that team?
JJJ: It's a great balance. You have a lot of young talent, guys that are hungry to play, and then you've got a bunch of veterans that can show you the way. I think just having both is a great balance. When you get deep in the season, you've got guys giving you advice on how to take care of yourself and they know how to prepare for games while you've got young players who are always ready to go. We're young, so we've got fresher legs, so we like to run. We may make more mistakes, but we're just out here playing hard.
TA: What are some of the conversations you've had with veterans like Marc Gasol or Mike Conley?
JJJ: I just pick their brains. It's not really anything specific. If I'm on the court and I have a question about anything , they break it down for me. You learn a lot by watching them, and when you ask them anything, they're an open book. Off the court, how to handle some times what time you should be at different things. You gotta take care of your vets, find out what they like, find out how they operate and that's how you go from there. you've got to build that trust.
TA: Are you happy you have that veteran leadership or are you a guy who likes to sort of learn on his own on the fly?
JJJ: Yeah, for sure [I'm happy]. I think its really going to help. Not everybody's blessed with that. I know a lot of people probably wish they would have a little more veteran leadership and I'm just glad I have it.
TA: What are some of the things you've been working on or keying in on this summer?
JJJ: I don't know, it's a lot of different things. I just want to make sure I'm doing the things that I need to do to help our team win. Whether that's how I played before, whether it's my ball handling, just having a move intense motor on the court, whatever it is. I think if you just play hard, everything comes to fruition.
TA: I don't know if you saw the NBA rookie survey, but your peers voted you as one of the best defenders in the class. Were you surprised by that or did you expect something like that?
JJJ: Honestly, I didn't even know that happened. But that's cool. Thanks for letting me know, I didn't know. It's cool to be getting that love from your peers. That's pretty cool. I take pride in my defense and that's something our team takes pride in so that's cool.
TA: What are you most looking forward to in your rookie season?
JJJ: There's a few. I definitely want to play against the defending champion Golden State Warriors. You also gotta want to play against the MVP in James Harden, and I definitely want to play against Miles. Miles Bridges [in Charlotte].
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