Men's Basketball | 1/26/2021 11:00:00 AM

Basketball has taken Darius Rice all the way from his hometown of Jackson around the world to 22 countries.
 
Now it has brought the 38-year-old nephew of NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice back home as an assistant basketball coach at Mississippi Valley State University, where the football stadium bears his family name.
 
"It's just funny how it works out," said Darius Rice, who joined head coach Lindsey Hunter's staff last August. "You look around and you just want to help the school to grow so badly. You see the potential here at Valley, and what it could be."

 
After a 16-year professional career spent mostly overseas, Rice is sharing his wisdom with the Delta Devils to help them return to their glory days.
 
Growing up, Rice dreamed of following in his uncle's footsteps on the gridiron as a wide receiver. But before his freshman year at Lanier High, he shot up from 6-foot-1 to 6-foot-9 in just one summer. 
 
"I wanted to play football, but the problem was I ran a slant pattern one day and had a linebacker try to hit me low," recalled Rice, an all-state selection at wide receiver and free safety. "I jumped over him, but I realized that this is going to be every night that they're going to try to hit me low because I grew so tall." 
 
Rice took the advice of his high school basketball coach and focused on hooping. The 6-foot-10 sharpshooter made a splash at the McDonald's All-American game his senior year, squaring off against future NBA All-Star Zach Randolph and scoring 24 points on 4-of-8 shooting from deep.
 
"My name really blew up then," Rice recalled. "They were like, 'You should go pro right out of high school.' At the time when I was coming out, you had to send papers off and hope they come back with feedback. There wasn't social media to let you know where you might go in the draft.
 
"I really didn't know until years later when (former Chicago Bulls guard) B.J. Armstrong said, 'Man, if you had come out of high school, we would've taken you No. 6 with the Bulls,'" Rice laughed. "I was like, 'Are you kidding me right now?'"
 
A highly touted recruit, Rice ended up committing to the University of Miami, where he went on to total the fourth-most points in program history (1,865). But when the 2004 NBA Draft arrived, he never heard his name called. Rice was a stretch four — a big man who could also "stretch" the floor as an outside shooter — before the position became popular. 
 
"My game fits today's game perfectly," Rice said. "But in the early 2000s, they didn't know what that was. They didn't know the stretch four position. They just said, 'You're 6-foot-10, get inside.'"
 
Despite being invited to seven preseason training camps and earning brief stints with the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers, Rice struggled to break through onto an NBA roster. It was internationally where he found more freedom.
 
At nearly every destination, Rice seemed to claim championships and MVP honors while winning over spirited fan bases. And the list of stops is lengthy: China, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Uruguay, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Malaysia, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Poland, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Singapore, Israel and more. 
 
"We won a championship in Bahrain, and these fans put me on their shoulders. All of them are like 5-foot-8, but they carried me out of the gym," Rice chuckled. "Overseas fans were just amazing. People in Mississippi — Jackson especially — don't get to experience things like that, so I was just happy to do it."
Rice also proved once and for all that he was a star in his own right, independent of Jerry's legendary status that seemed to cloud his early career. 
 
"Being the next big athlete in the family, they figured I was Jerry's kid because I was young, I looked like him, I played like him," Rice said. "They wanted me to be him — not his three kids, but me."
"It really bothered me that people said I never had to do anything," he added. "That's not me. I had to grind for everything I've ever had."
 
That work ethic translated to Rice's first coaching gig at Petal High, where he reached the Elite Eight for the first time in school history. And his competitive mentality is certainly evident at Valley anytime his players come knocking on his door late at night looking for a challenge.
 
"I haven't lost a pickup game since I've been here," Rice said in early December. "I'm 8-0. I show them how to set screens. They get through playing with me and they're all hurting and crying. They're mad because they can't beat me."
 
Between the trash talk and schooling, the Delta Devils are soaking up knowledge from Rice and the rest of their experienced coaching staff as they try to transform last year's 3-27 squad into a Southwestern Athletic Conference contender. 
 
"I feel like I have so much to give to these guys, especially how the game is now," Rice said. "I can share what I've done to help the new generation. Hopefully one day we can bring another title back to Valley."