Immigrant's Basketball Dream

The San Francisco Chronicle has a nice story about University of California, Berkeley basketball star Jorge Gutierrez, a previous ImmigrationProf Immigrant of the Day.

Gutierrez came to the United States just a few years ago, knowing no English and with little money, to "play against the best" in high school basketball. He initially was undocumented, with the fact that he was an immigrant leading to protests and heckling at some of his high school games. Gutierrez has since regularized his immigration status.

A scrappy defensive and excellent offensive player, Gutierrez is currently one of the best players in the Pac-12 conference. He can often be seen diving after a loose ball. Sports Illustrated had a nice story about Gutierrez earlier this year.

I saw Gutierrez play against USC, a victory in which he was everywhere on the court, on Thursday night, and will see him and the Cal Bears play the storied UCLA Bruins in Haas Pavilion later today.

UPDATE (1/1): As well as successfully guarding UCLA's leading scorer, Jorge Gutierrez had 16 points and 8 assists on Saturday in leading Cal to an 85-69 victory over UCLA.

KJ