Jumpshot Warner: Franklin freshman has Indiana's best basketball name

FRANKLIN – When it came time to pick a name for their youngest son, Doug and Kelly Warner knew it had to be something related to basketball.

“Basketball has always been a big part of our family,” said Kelly Warner, an elementary teacher in the Whiteland school system.

The Warners liked the name Macy for a girl, after Peru’s 1975 IndyStar Mr. Basketball Kyle Macy, who went to Purdue, then Kentucky and the NBA. For a boy? Larry Isaiah was a thought, if a fleeting one, after stars with Indiana ties (Bird and Thomas, respectively).

Doug wanted something a little more unique. With his wife’s blessing, the Warners welcomed Caden JT Jumpshot Warner into the world on May 10, 2003. From the jump, he has been known as Jumpshot Warner.

“My dad wanted to name me ‘Indiana Jumpshot,’” Jumpshot Warner said with a laugh. “I think people would have looked at me like I was crazy. What if I moved out of state? What would they call me, ‘Kansas Jumpshot’ or something? I wasn’t a fan of that one. But I like the name ‘Jumpshot.’”

What does the JT stand for? Jumpshot. Doug said people ask why it's not JS. He tells them he teaches his kids to finish what they start — not quit in the middle.

Jumpshot Warner will get his first taste of high school basketball this season as a freshman at Franklin, where he figures into the equation as a 6-2 forward who will swing between the junior varsity and varsity for coach Brad Dickey’s veteran team.

“He’s fun,” Dickey of Jumpshot, whose father has coached middle school basketball at Franklin for more than three decades. “He’s an athletic, energetic kid. I’ve spent a lot of time around him the last couple years and he really wants to do well for the kids around him.”

Only his grandmother, Pat Robinette, calls him by his given first name. To everybody else, he is Jumpshot or “Jump.” As the youngest of seven kids from a blended family, he has attended basketball games since he was a baby. But by age 5, Jumpshot had showed almost no interest in picking up a basketball, let alone shooting one.

“I figured I’d doomed him,” Doug Warner said.

He eventually came around.

“Growing up, all my older brothers played varsity basketball so I was always dragged to their games,” Jumpshot said. “But I never felt any pressure to be a basketball player because of my name. I never had a second thought about my name. My mom and dad have always told me I don’t have to play if I don’t want to.”

The name does come with attention, though. Kelly Warner remembers calling out Jumpshot’s name as he crawled around during the 2004 Indiana All-Star game against the Junior All-Stars at Shelbyville. The Warners were there to see J.R. Angle, an Indiana All-Star from Indian Creek that year.

“One of the television broadcasters heard me saying, ‘Jumpshot, Jumpshot,’ and finally said to me, ‘Are you calling him Jumpshot?’” Kelly Warner said. “They had a little spot on TV and said, ‘There’s your 2022 Mr. Basketball, Jumpshot.’”

His mother does worry that at some point his name could lead to harassment from opposing fans. Jumpshot, though, is at ease. He has already heard the ‘Brick Shot’ joke from his friends after a missed shot. How much worse could it get?

“I’m sure if I miss a jump shot on a game, people might be like, ‘Hey Jumpshot can’t shoot’ or something,” he said. “But I’ll just go out there and play my hardest to help the team win. It won’t bother me.”

Ashley Jennings, 31, is Jumpshot’s older sister and eighth grade boys coach at Franklin. Jennings, whose eventual goal is to be the first woman to coach boys varsity basketball in Johnson County, said it has been fun to see how Jumpshot’s name is getting him some attention as he starts high school.

“Right now I think it’s getting him some major popularity points,” she said. “Once the newness wears off, I don’t think his name will be a very big deal.”

One of Jumpshot’s older brothers, Christian Nicodemus, was a star player at Franklin, graduating in 2010. Christian was born right about the time of Christian Laettner’s famous shot to lift Duke over Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA tournament.

That topic actually came up when the Warners attended the Duke-Kentucky game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse earlier this month. When they ate at Shapiro’s before the game, Jumpshot met several Kentucky fans who were surprised to learn his name. It is a reaction he is accustomed to receiving.

“People that don’t know me will be like, ‘Why are you calling him ‘Jumpshot,’” he said with a smile. “Sometimes they are like, ‘Let me see your birth certificate.’ My Spanish teacher at school didn’t believe me. When he saw it on Power School, he was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I thought you were just playing around with me.’”

Jumpshot has aspirations of playing basketball in college. He figures as long as he is involved in basketball, he will continue to go by the name. If he gets into the corporate world, maybe then it will be time to put "Jumpshot" on the shelf.

“If I work an office job, I’m not sure my boss is going to come up to me and say, ‘Hey Jumpshot, I need you to get this done,’” he said. “If I’m working a ‘9 to 5’ office job, I think I’ll probably go by Caden. If I’m a coach, I’ll probably tell my players my name. Most people think it’s a cool name.”

So how is Jumpshot’s jump shot? His sister, the coach, replies this way: “He’s a freshman.” Jumpshot laughs when asked the question.

“I think it’s pretty good,” he said. “I’m not hitting, it takes me a couple shots and I usually get going again.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.