'He always showed love.' Beloved former basketball star Kenny Jackson dies at 43

The death of Kenny Jackson, who was once selected as the best high school boys basketball player in Section V, shocked and rattled hundreds of people around Rochester this week.

Jackson was 43 years old.

The mountaintop of his days in high school basketball was in 1999, when he was named the Democrat and Chronicle's All-Greater Rochester Player of the Year as a junior at Edison Tech.

And while Jackson was one of THOSE players who people in and around Rochester remember watching play, there were many more reasons why there was sadness attached to the news of his death.

"He was the same person that he was in high school, he did not change," former Franklin basketball star De'Waun Cheatham said from his home in Fairburn, Ga. "He had an easy-going nature, he really didn't bother nobody.

"He always showed love, and it always genuine love, nothing fake."

People could see this for themselves. Jackson, owner of a business called Action Jackson Construction Home Improvements, was all around Rochester.

He could be still be seen at gymnasiums and fields in the Rochester City School District, as one of his children Zymier, a senior at East High, became one of the best quarterbacks in Section V. A guard on this season's East High basketball team, Zymier Jackson has committed to play football at Wagner College.

"Every time you saw him, he had a smile, he didn't have issues with anyone," East High athletic director Eric Robinson said. "That's how his boys (sons) are.

"The family is at everything, the extended family would come to most of it."

Kenny Jackson spent days on the basketball court refining his game

Cheatham was an eighth-grader, Jackson in seventh-grade, when they met. They and other soon-to-be Section V basketball all-stars would spend hours, days really, on the courts at Carter Street Recreation Center.

"That's how I met most of my friends that I still have," Cheatham said. "KJ is married to my cousin, a really good friend, a really good person and as you can see, a really good dad.

"He was always playing. He was little, but he would grab you and put you in a headlock. All of our moms basically raised all of us."

Vincent French, co-founder and president of the Edison Tech Alumni Association, met Jackson in 1987. They were students at elementary school No. 36. And French's family, had just moved to Rochester. He was about six or seven years old, Jackson a year or two older.

Some of French's new schoolmates noticed he had an accent and a wardrobe that didn't fit in, and that led to a possible showdown one day after school. But guess who showed up, leaned on a tree and said there would be no fight. Not with him around.

" 'Not today, this is my 'cousin' " French remembered Jackson said. "I don't know where he came from. I didn't know him or anybody else, but everybody knew him."

French said that much later, Jackson told him something the equivalent of how words can be powerful. They later ended up at the same middle and high schools.

'I just knew there was more to this dude," French said, and later pointed out how Jackson became a paraprofessional at Eugenio Maria de Hostos Charter School in Rochester. "We are deeply saddened.

"This is family. A lot of people knew him one way or another. He has always been solid."

Kenny Jackson's high school basketball career in Rochester

Jackson was above average in Section V basketball.

Former Edison coach Dick O'Toole moved Jackson to a varsity team that already had a healthy amount of players who were talented, experienced or both, when the guard was a sophomore in 1997-98. The Inventors were Section V champions for the first time that season, Jackson an AGR Second Team and Section V Class A all-tournament team member. The City-Catholic League All-Star averaged 13.2 points, 2.6 assists and 1 steal per game.

The following season Jackson moved to point guard from shooting guard for Edison. He was not only a City-Catholic League all-star again, but the 1998-99 AGR Player of the Year and Most Valuable Player of the Section V Class A Tournament. The Inventors were back-to-back champions, after Jackson averaged 18.2 points, 7.8 assists and 3 steals.

O'Toole, a coach who rarely went overboard with praise, said Jackson had enough talent to play at a mid-major Division I college.

"Kenny was unbelievable, my goodness," O'Toole said. "He was good defensively, which I'm not sure everyone remembers. He obviously could score, which he did, but he could deliver the ball to people inside.

"He was a good defensive player, he had this knack of deflecting the ball and he could just guard. He and "Mook" (James Reaves) were a tough combination."

O'Toole watched an "unbelievable" game on Jan. 26, 1999, between Edison and Marshall, led by Chauncey Leslie, another AGR player. Edison won 75-64. Leslie scored 30 points. Jackson finished with 32.

"Kenny would bring that energy, and it was always positive," Rochester City School District administrator and former Edison guard Jacob Scott said. "His tolerance (for pain) was high, I've seen him play on a bad ankle.

"If the lights were on, no matter what he had on (for clothing and shoes), Kenny Jackson was there to compete. And it wasn't just with basketball either. He figured out ways of making a life for himself. He was always going to make things happen. He was doing very well with his business, too."

One of the most disappointing days for Scott at Edison, and others around the city school district, was when it became clear that Jackson would not play during his senior year. There were issues with Jackson's attendance.

"That hurt me," Scott said. "Everyone in the building was mad at the teacher (who drew the line). I was mad at the teacher, but at the end of the day it was Kenny's fault.

"At the end of the day, he admitted it was his fault. But he took that and did the best he could with it. He graduated, did what he needed to do."

Scott said that other students would leave their lunch periods to watch Jackson play basketball during gym classes.

"He was a celebrity, an in-house celebrity," Scott said. "I wish more of the world would have seen Kenny Jackson.

"What is there not to love? As a competitor during a game you might not, but (otherwise) there's no way you don't love the gusto, the blood that ran through him. He was a competitor all day, and he probably wasn't 150 pounds."

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Kenny Jackson, Rochester NY high school basketball legend, dies