Sports

August 4, 2010

Farmar to Keep Charities Local After Jersey Move

by Alex Leichenger, Contributing Writer

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Jordan Farmar is ready to move on to New Jersey, but the Los Angeles native says he is not leaving his hometown behind.

After spending the first four years of his NBA career as a backup point guard with the Lakers, the former Taft High School and UCLA star is having no second thoughts about heading to the East Coast.

“It was my time to go,” Farmar said. “I had to play a different style of basketball and be able to do more things on the floor to help my career grow. It’s just a step I needed to take, and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Farmar signed a three-year, $12 million deal with the New Jersey Nets in early July.

Farmar said that after he moves into his new home on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, he plans to continue his L.A.-based charitable efforts, including the Making Dreams Come True program at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA.

During the past three basketball seasons, 80 acutely ill pediatric patients and their family members have participated in the program, which includes attendance at a Lakers home game, spending time with Farmar and meeting the Lakers during warm-up.

On July 31, Farmar attended the third annual reunion luncheon for Making Dreams Come True, visiting recovering patients and delivering goodie bags to kids in treatment.

Farmar said the program’s presence will remain in Los Angeles, and the biggest change will be his uniform. He hopes to continue meeting with the kids and their families when the Nets visit Staples Center.

He also plans to continue his Hoop Farm Basketball Camp, whose proceeds benefit The Jordan Farmar Foundation. The four-day summer camp is set to begin its third year at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion on Aug. 16.

“Some of the most fun I have all summer is hanging out at my camp with 150 knuckleheads,” he told attendees during the Making Dreams Come True luncheon.

Farmar will also appear Aug. 15 at a fundraising event in Beverly Hills that benefits Friends of Sheba Medical Center and The Jordan Farmar Foundation.

These events are a farewell of sorts for Farmar, as Nets training camp opens in late September.

After finishing an NBA-worst 12-70 in the 2009-2010 season, the Nets are entering a time of makeover. Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov recently became the new owner and hired Avery Johnson, the 2005-2006 NBA Coach of the Year with the Dallas Mavericks, as New Jersey’s head coach.

Prior to coaching, Johnson spent 16 years in the NBA at the same point guard position Farmar plays. Johnson is notoriously tough on the point guards he coaches, but Farmar says this trait is what attracted him to the Nets. 

“That was one of the major reasons why I ended up signing with them, just having [Johnson] as a coach, playing for a point guard, having the opportunity to learn from someone who did really well for a long time in the NBA,” he said.

Farmar expressed gratitude for support from Jewish fans in Los Angeles. And as he prepares to leave one sizable Jewish market for another, he expects he will have the same appeal within the Jewish communities of New Jersey and New York.

“They love to support people whom they consider their own,” he said.

A version of this article appeared in print.

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