Jeff Adrien ’04 (basketball)

After his freshman year of college, former Brookline High School basketball captain, Jeff Adrien, took part in a camp in Cleveland, OH that was run by National Basketball Association star, Lebron James.

After one day of rigorous training and drills, the camp split up into teams to scrimmage, and Adrien found himself on the team opposite James.

All of Adrien’s teammates were too intimidated to guard the former first overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft. But not Adrien. He spent the rest of the day matched up against the now three-time NBA Most Valuable Player.

“To Jeff this was a great challenge. This was something to be excited about, not something to be afraid of,” Mark Fiedor, Adrien’s former coach at the high school, said. “And he took that with him whenever he played. He just was fearless, and people sense that.”

Adrien played on the boys varsity basketball team for three years at the high school. In his senior year he led the warriors to the State Championship after averaging 28.7 points, about 15 rebounds and eight blocked shots per game.

Adrien attributed much of his success to his hard work and concerted commitment to getting better.

“I think one of the reasons he became such a great high school player and college player is because he had ability but there were limitations to it,” Fiedor said. “But his limitations to his work, there weren’t any limitations to that.”

After he graduated in 2004, Adrien went on to play at the University of Connecticut. In 2008 he was named to the All-Big East first team.

Then, in the 2009 season, the University of Connecticut made it to the final four in the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship.

Adrien continued to improve after graduating from UCONN as he joined a Spanish team. He played in Europe for one year and then joined the Golden State Warriors, a team in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, in 2010 as a free agent.

“With some guys, they’ll work on their game and you’ll notice that they’ve gotten a little bit better,” Fiedor said. “With Jeff it was like every year he went into a different stratosphere.”

After being placed on waivers by the Warriors, Adrien was signed by the Houston Rockets. The day after he had his best game in the NBA with nine rebounds in 17 minutes, the Rockets released him.

Adrien then signed with a Russian team and is currently trying out for NBA teams.

“He’s a very likeable, quiet, humble person,” Fiedor said. “This is something that’s hard to quantify, but he’s just not afraid of anybody.”