From playing hoops to coaching
Parkchester resident desrcibes journey to coaching basketball in Dubai
BY JASON COHEN
Parkchester native Jermelle
“Speedy” Fraser fell in
love with hoops at a young age.
While he does not play in the
NBA, his basketball acumen
has taken him across the globe.
Fraser, 33, was raised by his
strict Caribbean mom, Roma
Southwell, who cared more
about school and books than
she did about sports. As a child,
basketball was Fraser’s safe haven
and allowed him to stay off
the violent streets of the Bronx.
“Basketball was something
that kept us out of trouble,”
he said.
He began playing in fi fth
grade, but the Bronx resident
said that his troublemaking
ways temporarily put basketball
in jeopardy. Fraser attended
Cardinal Spellman
High School but was kicked off
the team his sophomore year.
However, that roadblock did
not deter him from playing the
sport he loved. He joined the
team at St. Thomas Aquinas
College and then transferred to
SUNY Maritime.
“For me, basketball was a
passion and I never stopped
playing,” he said.
In 2011 he graduated from
Maritime with a degree in international
trade. Though his
desire to play hoops was still
strong, he realized that a career
in the NBA was not an
option for him.
As he saw friends who
played at St. John’s and Villanova
go overseas, he thought
he could follow the same route.
Fraser served as an assistant
coach at Maritime his senior
year and after school began
training with his mentor, Coach
Tom “Tippy” McTernan of Big
Apple Sports.
He worked a day job and
was attending international
tryouts, recalling that nothing
was going to stand in his way of
playing basketball.
“I still had that passion
and that love, so it was something
I was trying to chase,”
he explained.
He landed his fi rst gig in Kosovo
and spent the past seven
years on the other side of the
globe. Fraser coached or played
in Turkey, Spain, Sweden and
the Czech Republic and is currently
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the coach for the NBA
School in Dubai.
Fraser told the Bronx Times
that being away from his family
and friends for so long was a bit
of an adjustment at fi rst, but he
soon got used to it.
“In the beginning it was
tough,” he recalled. “You’re
talking about migrating halfway
across the world. The best
thing about being overseas is
connecting with people.”
Fraser stopped playing
three years ago and is set on
coaching in the college ranks
and hopefully at the professional
level one day. From
2019 to 2020, he was the assistant
varsity coach and
player development coach at
Montverde Academy in Florida,
where he worked with
top high school prospects in
the country.
According to Fraser, he
credited a lot of his success
to Tippy, who taught him to
work hard and stay focused.
Coach Jermelle ‘Speedy’ Fraser with former NBA player Zaza Pachulia
Photos courtesy of Jermelle Fraser
He hopes to one day return
to Parkchester and be able to
give back to his community.
He stressed that whether
someone wants to be a coach
or player, they should never
give up on their dreams.
“I never imagined doing
this,” he said. “I always just
wanted to play basketball.”
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