Freshman comments on close friendship with basketball player who doesn’t know his name
First year Timothy Graham sat in the North Avenue dining hall telling his friends about his latest interaction with Georgia Tech point guard Darren Jackson, recalling everything that makes their super totally close friendship unique, from their inside jokes to their secret handshakes.
“Yeah Tim always likes to bring every topic back to what ‘Darren told him,’” said friend Jalen Barker. “He gets this proud look on his face whenever he says ‘Darren’ like it’s so cool when he calls him by his first name, but none of us even know who the guy is. Pretty sure the basketball player he’s talking about is one of those really tall walk-on white guys that gets playing time whenever we’re up 30 points against East Central Tennessee Community College.”
Graham continues his story. He says they usually sit together in class, but recently they’ve developed a stronger bond.
“We were just chilling together, and all of a sudden we realized we were so lost in conversation that we didn’t even know what the professor was saying,” said Graham. “I think overall, [Jackson] makes me a better person, and in the end, my positivity and friendship makes him a better basketball player. It feels good to help the team however I can.”
Timothy Graham’s mother reached out to The Crouton to confirm her son’s close friendship with Tech’s fourth-string point guard: “Oh, yes those two are inseparable. They’re like peanut butter and olive oil - you’ll never find one without the other about ten aisles away.”
When we reached out to Jackson about Graham, his initial response was “Who?” After some digging, we were able to jog his memory.
“There’s this little scrawny dude in my EAS class that sits behind me and keeps coughing really loudly to try and get me to turn around. Every time I clear my throat he thinks I’m saying his name and asks if he can help me with anything,” said Jackson. “One day I think I zoned out in class and asked him what the professor said, and he didn’t know either. He tried to fist bump me after. It got weird.”
His friends say that he’s direct messaged Jackson on instagram 26 times with no response. The messages have mainly consisted of congratulations after a win and pleas for the two of them to hang out.
