MLive is following the top 2021 boys basketball recruits in Michigan. Each weekday, we’ll feature a new athlete and get updates on their recruitment, goals and more. Today, Hamtramck guard Javier Whitaker is featured.
RELATED: MLive’s top baskeball recruits in Michigan for class of 2021: May update
Bio
School: Hamtramck
Height: 5-foot-10
Primary position: Point guard
Secondary position: Shooting guard
Graduation year: 2021
Recruit ranking: No. 20 on MLive’s list of top 2021 recruits
Scholarship offers: University of Detroit Mercy
Also showing interest: Grand Valley State, Wisconsin-Green Bay
2019-20 accolades: Division 1 third-team all-state by Detroit Free Press and Detroit News … Division 1 all-state honorable mention by Associated Press … First-team all-league in the Michigan Metro Athletic Conference Blue Division
2019-20 stats: 17 points, 2.0 assists, 2.0 steals
‘Hamtramck is my city’
It’s a good thing Javier Whitaker has put on about 20 pounds of muscle through his boxing training regimen during the COVID-19 shutdown. The 5-foot-10, 170-pound rising senior guard for the Hamtramck basketball team is expected to put the Cosmos on his back.
Whitaker’s heart has always been in Hamtramck, which is located in the middle of Metro Detroit and is the old stomping grounds of legendary Rudy Tomjanovich, the former University of Michigan All-American, five-time NBA All-Star and NBA championship coach.
“He’s an original Hamtramck kid. Not only did he put the program on his back, he put the whole city of Hamtramck on his back because he’s the last Hamtramck kid that we have,” Hamtramck coach Dennis Foster said about Whitaker, who will be a four-year varsity player and is an integral component to leading the Cosmos back to prominence.
These days, several of the better high school basketball players look to transfer and help form super teams.
Not Whitaker. The tough-minded college prospect opted to stay put. He wants to bring the glory days back to Hamtramck.
“It’s really important. Hamtramck is my city,” Whitaker said.
Foster was a 5-9 star guard for Hamtramck in 1993-96. He earned all-city and all-state accolades before he went on to put up prolific numbers at Marygrove College (28.5 ppg) and play professionally overseas in Ireland for six years.
Foster sees a lot of himself in Whitaker, whom he met when Whitaker was in fourth grade at Holbrook Elementary. Foster has taken Whitaker, nicknamed “Jah” (pronounced “Jaa”) or “Jah Jah,” under his wing.
Not only does Whitaker play hard for his city and for himself, but he does it for his mentor.
“He’s always there for me, directing me on the right path,” Whitaker said. “It’s not always about basketball – we talk about personal stuff, too, so he’s like a dad, a father figure.”
Javier Whitaker (Courtesy of Rollin Filmz Productions)
Whitaker scores and defends
Hamtramck went 14-8 during Whitaker’s sophomore year in 2018-19, marking the Cosmos’ first winning season since 2000.
The Cosmos have been on the rise with Whitaker at the controls. During his junior year, they posted an 18-3 record and had earned a berth in a Division 1 district finals game against Detroit King when the COVID-19 pandemic brought an abrupt halt to the basketball season. Hamtramck was seeking its school’s first district title since 1985.
In the 2019-20 district semifinals, Whitaker drained 8 of 16 attempts from 3-point range en route to a game-high 28 points in Hamtramck’s 78-67 victory over Grosse Pointe South. It’s not the first shooting display Whitaker put on during the season, as he hit nine triples in a win over Ecorse earlier.
Foster said Whitaker is “lights out” from long range and that he can create his own shot, especially effective off the pick-and-roll.
“I score on all three levels and I’m going to check,” Whitaker said.
Playing defense is about mentality and effort, and Whitaker embraces that aspect of the game. He believes that since he’s able to score on all three levels and also defend up and down the court, he can wear out the opposition.
Foster said that Whitaker takes on the challenge of defending the opponent’s best player.
“He don’t care if he’s 6-9 or if he’s 5-9 -- he wants to guard the best player on everybody’s team and he plays with an ultimate chip on his shoulder,” Foster said. “You know, with us being from Hamtramck, we didn’t get a lot of recognition as far as basketball. It was always soccer. But I put the whole program on his back and he’s brought us to where we need to be.”
The city of Hamtramck means a lot to Javier Whitaker. He is entering his senior year at Hamtramck High School and he hopes to lead the basketball team to another big season in 2020-21. (Courtesy of Rollin Filmz Productions)
Throwing his name in the ring
Whitaker received a Division I offer from University of Detroit Mercy last summer. Foster said Whitaker and teammates Hershel Marion and Amari Allen are scheduled to visit Grand Valley State in August.
Foster said that U-D likes Whitaker because he picks up 94 feet defensively.
“He doesn’t need the ball in his hand, and that’s one thing that we try to teach. He can play with the ball, he can play without the ball, and I think (college coaches) saw that as well,” Foster said. “He can pass the ball and with the team we have, that’s something that people really don’t see, but he’s a great passer as well. He sees the floor real well. And his basketball IQ – I know they like that. They talk like they love his basketball IQ.”
Whitaker had participated in cross country and track in order to help his conditioning for basketball. With the sports world coming to a grinding halt amid the pandemic, he sought another way to improve his stamina and strength. He found it, packing on muscle through his boxing training with LJ Harrison, brother of Tony Harrison, the former WBC Super Welterweight title holder.
Whitaker’s boxing training typically begins with a 2 ½- to 3-mile run, then moves to stations hitting various muscle groups and including actual boxing and footwork drills. The end of each workout ends with a focus on abs.
“It’s helped me a lot. I started doing it for the conditioning and I’ve gotten stronger,” Whitaker said. “I was 150, I’m 170 now.”
Whitaker, who maintains a 3.0 GPA and is interested in sports management or coaching, enjoys watching stars on the collegiate level such as Seton Hall’s Myles Powell and Michigan State’s Rocket Watts, who is a fellow Detroit native.
In his offseasons, Whitaker has played AAU ball for Change The Mentality (CTM).
Whitaker is not sure when he will announce his college commitment. He’s waiting to see what offers come along, as the process has been significantly impacted by the pandemic. He’s not dead-set on playing at the D-I level, but he would like to play overseas down the road, just like Foster did.
“He wanted to wear my number (jersey No. 3), and I wouldn’t let him. I told him he ain’t ready yet, but he’s ready,” Foster said. “He didn’t want to (transfer and) team up with guys – he wanted to beat all of ‘em – and that was the mindset that I had.
“And just taking him under my wing when he was young, it was like, ‘I want to do the same thing. I want to bring Hamtramck back to where it was, back when y’all was in school.’ And I was like, ‘All right.’ He accepted the challenge and he put the whole city on his back and he did and we’re here, and it’s because of him.”
Read more:
Top basketball recruits: High-scoring Ke’Ontae Barnes of Orchard View full of ‘fight and hunger’
Hamtramck’s Javier Whitaker wins Metro Detroit player of the week poll
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