Houston Rockets star Jalen Green is well known for his electrifying dunks and on-court skills. However, his first choice of sports wasn’t always basketball. In fact, the Rockets guard barely touched a basketball initially while growing up and was more into other sports such as football, baseball, soccer, and tennis. According to his mother at a moment in time, she thought Jalen would grow up to be a football player.

But that changed soon when Jalen experienced a change of scenery as his family moved to Fresno. As a nine-year-old basketball slowly grew up on Green. While playing all the other sports Jalen’s mother enrolled him into the Michael Jordan youth basketball camp in Santa Barbara. Since then, he hasn’t looked back and basketball has become a priority. Let’s take a closer look at the Rockets star’s roots and get to know more about him.

Is Jalen Green of mixed ethnicity? Where is the Rockets star from?

Jalen Green has experienced multiple cultures since his childhood. Born to Bree Purganan on February 9, 2002, who is of Filipino ethnicity on her grandfather’s side and his dad about whom there is no information available in any public domain. Given that, the Rockets’ star is of mixed ethnicities with Filipino and African-American Heritage.

But his step-father Marcus Green, who’s a former NBA star himself has been quite supportive through his hooping career. Furthermore, Jalen’s mother Bree is a nurse by profession and has two other kids apart from the Rockets star. He has two older sisters named Alexis and Gabby. Bree’s influence on Jalen’s career cannot be overstated as she was the one who enrolled him in his first-ever basketball camp.

Where was Jalen Green born and brought up?

Born in Merced, California Jalen Green has lived in multiple cities while growing up. He lived in Livingston, California before moving to Fresno when Green was in the third grade. Fresno is the place that has had the most impact on the Rockets star and the very place he started hooping for the first time.

Furthermore, gang activity and poverty have always been dominant in the city of Fresno, California. Although it isn’t a small city where everybody knows everybody, it’s small enough for people to know each other through mutual connections. “I say Fresno is a small city, it’s small-minded but with a lot of good people,” is how Green described the city. “It’s really crazy out there. I always mention that part because people just don’t know about Fresno. They think it’s some nice little city, but really it’s not.”

Additionally, Jalen played the first three years of his high school basketball for San Joaquin Memorial High School. Where he averaged 18.1 points as a freshman, then 27.9 points as a sophomore, and if that wasn’t enough, in his junior season he averaged a stellar 30.1 points and led his team to a second straight Central Division II Championship.

After his incredible junior season, Green transferred to Prolific Prep in Napa, California for his senior year. Even there Green kept up his incredible scoring averaging 31.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, and five assists. Following this, he was named to the McDonald’s All-American, and the Jordan Brand Classic and won other accolades. Green then joined the NBA G League Ignite despite offers from multiple colleges and after a year there he declared for the NBA Draft and was picked as the second overall pick by the Rockets.