Former basketball Star Kodet goes pro

By Brodee Gillam

Staff Writer

All it took was one call and a 10-minute decision to change former LCC basketball player Jimmy Kodet's life forever.

Kodet finished up his academic and collegiate basketball career at Valdosta State University in Georgia in early 2018 when he got the call for his first pro offer from TV Goldbach in Germany.

Kodet, who played for LCC in 2015-16, was a standout during his time at Valdosta State. While playing for the Blazers, his team broke the total-wins record (23) and shattered multiple three-point records. The Blazers went 59-9 in Kodet's two years.

Needless to say, Kodet learned a lot from VSU.

"My time there was great because I got a chance to grow as a basketball player and grow as a person," Kodet said. "It taught me what I needed to learn while going through this whole journey of becoming a pro basketball player."

Kodet said his first few months after graduation did not go as planned.

"Right out of college I had a lot of goals and a lot of dreams," Kodet said. "I thought I was going pro right away."

That was not the case.

After college, he signed with an agent, who Kodet said, "filled my head with a lot of nonsense."  This led to the man, teammates called "Jimmy Buckets," thinking his basketball career might be over.

But after signing with his new agents, David Gonzalez and Michael Stinnett of Free Agency Basketball, Kodet finally got an offer.

"All of the sudden, I was working at my job, and (David) called me and said, 'We have an offer on the table and you have 10 minutes to decide,'" Kodet said. "It was right before I was getting ready to decide to quit this basketball dream of becoming a pro and, right then and there, they hit me with that life-changing decision."

Within the next 24 hours, Kodet had talked to coaches, team staff, management and the team president. He signed his contract shortly after. He has had to adjust to the culture shift in Germany, but is already learning quickly thanks to his support system.

"Luckily enough for me, Frankfurt is an area … where there is a lot of tourism, so a lot of people here speak English," Kodet said. "My coaches asked me if I wanted to learn how to speak German, so now on our drives to practice, coach takes me to practice three days a week … he teaches me German.

"(Recently before a workout) I stopped into a bakery and asked for my order in German, and that's only after one week."

So the dream has come true, right?

Almost. His first contract is closer to a tryout then a sure thing.

"I'm at the point where, this is going to make or break me," Kodet said. "I have 13 games and three months to determine, does another team, or this team, want to (sign) me or am I done?

"At the end of the day, if the coaches look at me and say, 'You were awesome. Thank you for coming. I do not think we want to resign you.' I get to go home and start my life. I get to start a new career, a new dream. Because, at the end of the day, I get to tell myself … 'I made it. I did exactly what I wanted to.'"

One thing is for sure: Kodet has the support of the LCC community, and will put his all into this opportunity.