A former NBA player who appeared briefly with the New Orleans Pelicans has transitioned into a new career as a New York City police officer.
According to information listed on his LinkedIn profile, and confirmed by social media posts from the department itself, former Pels forward James Southerland has completed the New York Police Department Police Academy training program, and is now serving as an active-duty officer. The move comes after the end of a professional basketball career that spanned the NBA, the G League and multiple other countries across ten years and four continents.
Southerland’s Brief Pelicans Stint
Southerland, a modern-style floor stretcher listed at 6’8 and 215 pounds during his playing career, went undrafted in 2013 after four seasons at Syracuse, where he was a key rotation player on some high-profile Orange teams. He appeared in 112 games across his college career and scored 880 career points, making the Final Four in his senior season, when he was a starter alongside current Portland Trail Blazers forward Jerami Grant.
Southerland turned professional before the 2013â14 season and appeared in three regular season games for the Pelicans, logging limited minutes as a reserve forward over the season’s final week. He also played in one game for the Charlotte Hornets that season, with whom he had started the year, and would later sign a training camp deal with the Blazers as well. In all, Southerland played 30 NBA minutes, scoring 14 points to go along with grabbing 8 rebounds, all of which came with the Pelicans.
After his brief time in the NBA ended, Southerland continued playing professionally overseas and in secondary leagues. He spent several seasons in Europe and Asia, including stints in Italy, France and South Korea, and had multiple stints in the G League hoping to make it back to the big dance one more time. Across those stops, he routinely played starter-level minutes and averaged in the low-to-mid teens in points per game, largely as a floor-spacing forward. His overseas career extended into his early 30s and represented the bulk of his professional playing time, finally ending his career in 2023 with a stint in New Zealand.
The Athlete-Police Pipeline
Southerlandâs transition into law enforcement puts him among a group of former professional athletes who have pursued careers in public service after retiring from sports. Notably, former NBA player Chris Herren has done plenty of public service work after his playing career, through substance abuse prevention and law enforcement training programs, while Shaquille O’Neal trained with the police during his playing career, became a reserve officer in Florida, and holds a community relations position with the Henry County Sherriff’s Department in Georgia.
There are also direct examples of former professional athletes becoming fully fledged police officers. Former San Francisco Giants pitcher Jack Taschner pursued law enforcement training after his baseball career and serves (or served) with the force in Appleton, Wisconsin, while former New York Jets wide receiver Laveraneus Coles is now an officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office in Florida having completed his training this season. Across the pond, former English Premier League footballers (as in soccer players) Tommy Wright and Arjan de Zeeuw have all joined the force after their playing careers, while back in basketball, former Real Madrid standout Michael Smith set a record last year when he graduated from the Washington DC police academy – at age 60.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Former Pelicans Forward Becomes New York City Cop appeared first on Heavy Sports.