Julian Newman - Basketball Players, Career and Family

Julian Newman was born in Orlando, Florida, on September 6, 2001, to Vivian and Jamie Newman. Both his parents had played basketball at the school and college levels. Both were point guards in their respective high-school teams.

His entire family loved basketball, and it was not too difficult for little Julian to catch the love for the game. Jamie knew that Julian was highly interested in playing basketball. He enrolled Julian and his elder sister in basketball classes.

However, Julian was made to play only with kids of his age and height. They also had smaller balls to play with. Jamie knew that Julian could do much better. Thus, he made sure that Julian played with boys older than him and with regular-sized basketballs.

His parents said that Julian had a keen interest in the game but that they did not want his passion for the game to affect his studies. His parents thought homework was more important than the game. Thus, he decided to divide his time equally between sports and academics. He scored straight As in school and finished his homework as soon as he came home. He would then leave immediately to play basketball.

His parents also refused to put restrictions on him during holidays or family events. Jamie, meanwhile, worked as a basketball coach and set up camps and clinics. He thought that associating with the sport would motivate his son to continue with basketball.

With this ultimate support from his parents, Julian grew into an exceptional basketball player. He gradually began to gain fame in the game.

By the time he was 10 years old, he was already scoring 200 floaters, 200 jump shots, and 100 free throws almost every day. Julian attended several public schools as a child. However, none of those schools had a reputation of honing a basketball player or of preparing a player for a bright future in the ‘National Basketball Association’ (NBA).

In the fall of 2012, Jamie got his son enrolled at the ‘Downey Christian School,’ which had a reputation of being basketball-friendly. Jamie joined the same school as a basketball coach and also taught history there. In the 2012 season, Julian started playing for the basketball team of the school.

He was in fifth grade when he scored 63 and 91 points, respectively, in two of his matches. This performance made him a social-media phenomenon. Some of his classmates made his video and put it up on ‘YouTube,’ where it has garnered more than a million “views” to date.

Gradually, he started gaining more fame and his performances continued to improve. He also uploaded a mixtape featuring his workout routine, and the video has garnered more than a million “views” to date.

His social-media fame reached a number of major American media houses. Several of them covered his story. ‘People’ and ‘The New York Times’ published features on him. While Julian was still too young to handle all that fame, his father attended many interviews on his son’s behalf.

He was also invited for interviews on TV shows. He appeared on shows such as ‘Good Morning America,’ ‘The Steve Harvey Show,’ and ‘Today.’ His appearance on ‘The Steve Harvey Show,’ which was broadcast internationally, brought him global recognition.

A major publication, ‘Tampa Bay Times,’ covered Julian in a special story captioned “the most marketed 12-year-old basketball player in the world.” Its key points against Julian were that Julian was not a miraculous player and that he was just brilliant at a sport, like many others. As his sister, Jaden, was also being talked about in the basketball arena at that time, their father, Jamie, was criticized for promoting them.

Unaffected by the criticism, Julian continued to play and hone his skills throughout his high-school years and competed efficiently with boys taller than him. Playing at the high-school level, he made the record for the fastest 1,000 points by any player.

By the time he graduated from high school in 2018, he had scored more than 3,000 points, the highest in the history of American high-school basketball. He is currently looking forward to join the right college to continue his basketball career.

Despite the social-media fame, life has not been a bed of roses for Julian Newman and his family. His father receives frequent criticism for putting his children through such hard work at such a tender age. Most people believe this could create too much pressure for the kids to handle.

Some people also consider Julian to be highly overrated. In several of his high-school games, the opposition supporters have been heard chanting “overrated.”

Although he is an exceptional player, Julian’s professional career is far from being perfect. That is due to the height requirements that are needed to play in the ‘NBA.’ Julian is almost 5 feet and 6 inches tall at the age of 17, and it is highly unlikely that he will grow any taller. The minimum height requirement for the ‘NBA’ is 5 feet and 9 inches. However, his father remains hopeful that his son would feature on one of the best basketball teams of the country in the future.

Julian’s popularity has had no impact on him or on his routine. He is still addicted to the game. In his free time, he often picks up a basketball and starts practicing on the court that his father has built at their house. He sometimes practices with three basketballs at the same time.