Here's why this Augusta-area basketball player believes his career is far from being over

Ever since James Nipper first touched a basketball, he knew he wanted to play at the highest levels possible.

But it wasn’t until his sophomore season of AAU basketball where the Class of 2022 Laney graduate knew he could play collegiately. That was when the 6-foot-4 point guard had a standout AAU season with the Southern Kings. Things opened up for him from there.

“I always believed I could play college ball since 10th and 11th grade,” Nipper said. “But after coaches actually started communicating with me, being interested, wanting me, offering me, that’s when I became certain that college basketball was in my future.”

Last Friday, Nipper made sure of it when he signed a letter of intent to play at Livingstone College, a NCAA Division II school in Salisbury, North Carolina. Nipper chose Livingstone over Denmark Tech and East Georgia, primarily because he wanted the chance to play at a four-year school, and because of the care Livingstone’s coaches invested into him.

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“Coach (James) Stinson was just being real patient with me,” Nipper said. “He was giving me the run down of how things went and expectations from me if I were to attend Livingstone, and I actually believe and want to live up to pro expectations.”

In other words, Nipper believes he can carve out a future as a professional basketball player through Livingstone. And if his maturation at Laney over the last two years is any indication, he could be on the right track.

Nipper averaged over 20 points, eight rebounds and three assists per game as a do-it-all player for a Wildcats squad that missed a state tournament berth for the first time since the 2007-08 season. The drop off after a 16-8 record in the 2020-21 campaign was somewhat expected since Laney graduated three of its top four scorers after that year.

The one who didn’t graduate was Nipper. And he found himself leading a crew of freshmen, sophomores and juniors who hadn’t see much, if any, varsity playing time.

Nipper made the most of it, though, as he showed himself to be a versatile scorer, solid defender and a player who could make his teammates better. That doesn’t mean it was easy, however. But Nipper acknowledges that it was gratifying.

“The most satisfying part of all of this for me is to know I’ve done something right,” Nipper said. “For me to get a basketball scholarship to go and be able to play at the next level, I know I’ve done something right. There isn’t a bigger satisfaction to me right now than that.”

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Nipper will join a program that completed its 2021-22 campaign with a 14-10 finish overall and a 9-6 mark in Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association play. The Blue Bears just missed a NCAA Division II tournament berth after making a strong run in the CIAA conference tourney.

Nipper says he wants to help make Livingstone’s program better while allowing it to improve him as a man and a player. Nipper will major in sports management as he prepares to scratch his itch for coaching once his playing days are done.

“My plans going into Livingstone are to be a D-2 All-American and be able to get into a D-1 college,” he said. “All of that depends on how I play though. But even when playing basketball is over for me, my love for basketball won’t go dark. I want to become a coach when I finally put down the ball.”

Hopefully, as far as Nipper is concerned, that will be something he won’t have to worry about for a while. He says he’s going to take the lessons he’s learned from being a back up and role player to Laney’s go-to scorer and use them to lay a foundation for a professional career.

“Laney has taught me that things are going to get bad or be bad at some point, but at the end of the day, the decision you make in how to handle it is what’s really going to determine how bad things get,” he said. “So by me making better decisions and keeping my head up, I can help my team become better. In order to become a pro, I learned that you have to work like one.”

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Laney's James Nipper signs to Livingstone College