Basketball is a family affair for mother and daughter

February 5, 2024 Andy Furman

In this June 21, 1997, file photo, Los Angeles Sparks' Lisa Leslie (9), right, and New York Liberty's Kym Hampton (34) leap for the ball during the opening tip of the inaugural WNBA basketball at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. AP Photo/Michael Caulfield, File

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Like mother, like daughter. And the common thread – basketball.

Mom is Kym Hampton who was drafted as the No. 4 pick in the 1997 WNBA Elite draft and played three seasons for the New York Liberty (1997-1999).

Daughter is A’riel Jackson, a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati, who has a pretty strong resume as well.

The Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School graduate was named to the McDonald’s All-American East Nominee List while becoming a 1,000-point scorer in her senior season.

“My mom grew up in Louisville and knew Michelle Clark-Heard, the former coach at Cincinnati,” A’riel Jackson told the Brooklyn Eagle the other day. “I came out for an official visit and fell in love with the campus as well as the community.”

And the feeling may be mutual between her and Cincinnati’s first-year coach Katrina Merriweather.

In fact, it was Jackson’s late-game heroics that gave the Cincinnati women a thrilling 64-63 win over the University of Central Florida last month.

Down by one with 14 seconds remaining (63-62), Jackson made the game-winning putback as time expired to give UC the win.

With the win, the Bearcats earned their first-ever Big 12 Conference victory — this is the first year that Cincinnati has been in the Big 12.

“I saw that game winning shot on TV,” mom Kym told the Eagle from her Portland home, “And I screamed, ‘What were you shooting at?’

“She got the rebound and put back to win it,” Hampton said. “I just stayed with it,” A’riel added.

“I realized at an early age,” Kym Hampton continued, “That she was athletic and loved basketball. But my patience level was low, really low. And my time was tight, as I was working at Madison Square Garden at the time.”

So, Kym Hampton connected with two other parents who had basketball-playing daughters. “They worked with A’riel’s ball handling skills; they were at practice and by the time she was 10; well, her ball-handling skills were crazy.”

The 6-2 Kym Hampton attended Iroquois High School in Louisville, Kentucky, she joined the basketball team during her freshman year and ultimately scored 1,198 career points, averaging 23.5 points per game, and 728 rebounds, averaging 14 per game.

She was the starting center on both Kentucky All-Star and Kentucky East/West All-Star teams.

But there’s no real competition between the two.

“She was a center,” A’riel says. “In high school,” mom Kym added, “A’riel played the No. 4 spot. She was recruited as a point guard, she’s 5-foot-9 — but it was her athleticism that helped.

“Every position has a skill set,” Kym Hampton said. “It sometimes takes years to know who’s hot, and know how to get that certain feel.”

A’riel Jackson got that feel in the first collegiate game in which she was in the starting lineup — November 10, 2022. She scored three points and added five rebounds, two assists and two steals in 19 minutes.

“She wants to learn, wants to be good and get better; and also wants to do what makes the team better,” says mom Kym, who has seen A’riel play in-person several times already this season.

In Jackson’s collegiate debut at Louisville three days earlier, on November 7, 2022, she posted 12 points, three assists and a team-high four rebounds in 17 minutes, becoming the first Bearcat to score in double figures in their collegiate debut since Ilmar’l Thomas had 19 against East Tennessee State back in 2017.

Oh, did we mention she was the only freshman on the roster?

“The difference between high school and college ball is simple,” A’riel says. “College is faster, the players are stronger, and it’s like playing against everyone’s best player from high school.”

She also mentions the bigger crowds. “But we’d get 500 to 1,000 at Loughlin for a big game and the place would rock,” she said, “Sometimes, when we play now, we’ll get 4,000 in an arena that seats 17,000 and the place isn’t as noisy.”

And the biggest challenge, she says, is “sacrificing your social life. You have to make that decision — go out with friends or go to the gym and practice free throws.”

It looks like she’s already made the right choice.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR