Jacob Gilyard’s story to becoming a star at Richmond Basketball

How it began for Gilyard

For tens of thousands of kids, their basketball memories begin with tagging along with their parents or older siblings to the rec league or weekly pickup games. That is where it all started for Richmond senior Jacob Gilyard, “Going to watch my dad play in men’s league and being on the side of the court shooting on the sides while they’re running up and down.” He also said he has fond memories of doing something we all have done, “Playing a little bit with my friends in my driveway out front.”

It’s because of those trips to the gym with his dad that his father was a big basketball influence on him. But, Gilyard says another big influence on him was his older brother Chris, Jacob told me, “I looked up to my brother, he wasn’t a great basketball player but he was a pretty good athlete. I grew up watching him play.”

When it came to one the court, as a young ball handler he looked up to a guy a lot of young kids were at the time, Allen Iverson. Gilyard says watching Iverson, “He was a big role model to me just because he was a smaller guard that had a lot of success in the NBA.”