How a Jewish TikToker who hasn’t played organized basketball in years made it to the NBA draft
Courtesy of TikTok/@haberjordan
By Louis Keene June 19, 2023
Jordan Haber is not an elite basketball player and did not play the game in high school or college. Yet he is one of the official entrants in Thursday’s NBA draft — and perhaps the only Jewish one.
How Haber — who is heading to Yeshiva University’s law school this fall — got to the draft started as a joke with college friends and a fateful night spent reading the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
“I think everyone has a dream to be a professional athlete when they’re younger,” Haber, 21, told the Forward. “And I think it’s pretty cool that like the average person just kind of found their way and with no ill intent, kind of just having fun.”
The story has gone viral on his TikTok, and Haber has also created a YouTube channel to document his journey.
@haberjordan Replying to @Raptors hi @Raptors #nba #nbadraft #nbadraft2023
An avid social media creator, Haber grew up in a Reform Jewish household in Boca Raton, Florida, where he was bar mitzvahed at Temple Beth El.
After his friends at the University of Florida challenged him to declare for the draft, he set to work studying the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement. He says he read the first 100 pages before skipping to the draft eligibility requirements — which said entrants needed to be at least 19 years old and have graduated from an American four-year university in the preceding year. (There are additional rules for players who declare before graduation.)
Meeting all those requirements, he postmarked letters of intent to the league office in April. The return paperwork came back relatively quickly.
Now, the 6-foot-2 guard is in New York for the week with his draft-night digs picked out. He described it as “a basic blue suit like you would see at a bar mitzvah.”
Several NBA teams and brand accounts commented on Haber’s viral TikTok about his journey to the draft, and the Barclays Center social media team comped him tickets to the event. He’ll be attending in person, but he’s not sure where he’ll be sitting.
And while his friends have been pushing for him to grab a selfie with the presumptive first pick, the towering French wonder Victor Wembanyama, Haber said what he’s really hoping for is a handshake from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who is Jewish — whether that’s on stage or in the stands.
The lifelong Miami Heat fan is not expecting to don a team cap Thursday night, but he is already has plans during NBA training camp —to start as a 1L at Yeshiva’s Cardozo School of Law. He hopes to put his experience in social media toward a career as an attorney for content creators.
Haber’s parents have no qualms about their son’s detour on the way to law school. “They found it hilarious,” he said.
And his friends? They told him they’re not surprised he almost made it to the big leagues.
“Like, yeah, this adds up,” he said.
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