Jordan Blount settling back into Cork life as he eyes glory with Neptune

It’s over ten years since he upped and left Ireland as a 15-year old and there is an eagerness in his voice as he contemplates a first shot at the senior domestic game with Neptune

ON THE RISE: Jordan Blount of Neptune pictured at the launch of the InsureMyVan.ie and MissQuote.ie Super League and Division 1. Pic: INPHO/Billy Stickland

The faint whisper of something big could be heard in Salzburg’s Alpenstraße Sports Hall last June as Jordan Blount landed a three-point jump shot and Ireland dared to push out to a 22-17 lead in the opening quarter of their FIBA EuroBasket 2025 pre-qualifier.

It wasn’t to be. A 12-point run had established a beachhead for Mark Keenan’s men but it was washed away in no time. Austria’s winning margin stretched to 26 points with the San Antonio Spurs centre Jakob Pöltl accounting for 14 of their 92 points and eleven rebounds.

Blount left for home with torn ankle ligaments and a couple of broken toes.

Playing three days later against Switzerland didn’t help – even if he added 18 points to the nine scored in the first game - but if there was an upside to the injuries then it was in the fact that they happened just as the off-season dawned.

It’s not that he hadn’t known time away from the court before. There was an 18-month period of ineligibility while in college in the States, a torn ACL and meniscus injury which cost him some of his final season there, and an MCL issue in Iceland last year, but add in spells in the UK and Spain and it had been a decade packed to capacity.

It felt like he hadn’t had a break in ages.

The layoff was a chance of a reboot and he grabbed it, swapping life in the gym with long regenerative stints in the sea. 

“It almost sent me into retirement because of how good it felt.” He jokes. Blount is raring to begin new chapter in his old haunt having returned home to Cork.

It’s over ten years since he upped and left Ireland as a 15-year old and there is an eagerness in his voice as he contemplates a first shot at the senior domestic game with Energywise Ireland Neptune. That the first game is a sold-out InsureMyVan.ie Super League home derby against UCC Demons is all the better.

Blount’s memories of the rivalry go deep into his childhood. He kept up to speed with the Irish scene via his late father Gary, who passed away in 2020, and any games that happened to be streamed. Now he gets to experience it for himself and he is braced for a domestic game that has come on in leaps and bounds since he was a fan on the sidelines.

He sees that not just in the Irish players around him but in the quality of the Americans being attracted over and he is doing his own part to drive it on again as a coach with the Neptune U15s, the South U15 regional team and the U15s Munster boys’ team. And if anyone needs some guidance about a move abroad then his phone is always on.

But, why come home? And why now?

Neptune’s change of ownership and the club’s future plans are part of it. So is the desire to drop anchor after all his travels and the associated fact that he is a married man now too. His wife Salma, Egyptian-born but Chicago-raised, is living in Europe for the first time and that allows him to experience his native city through her eyes.

How others see him is another thing.

Blount played NCAA Division 1 ball with the UIC Flames. He appeared 90 times, scoring 673 points and excelling with 510 rebounds across three seasons. ‘Another Jordan becoming Chicago hardwood hero’, was one headline on the UIC website back in 2019. No small thing for an Irish kid, even one standing 6’ 9”.

He has all that experience and knowledge banked from his time in the US and from playing professionally abroad so there will be expectation on his shoulders. He knows that but doesn’t see it as pressure. His goal is to fit with the team, not the other way around, as Colin O’Reilly’s side look to build on a Cup final appearance last year.

His return, at the age of 25, is a huge addition to the Irish scene but that's not to say there is another decade of ball ahead of him. One of his old college teammates lived by that creed that ‘once I’m not having fun with it I’ll be done with it’, and Blount hasn’t forgotten it.

“In the Irish Super League I could continue playing for another ten years, at least. That's not my goal, I don't want to be that. My ego is too big for me to continue playing when I don't feel like I'm the best player on the court. So I made that decision and I had that conversation with my wife. As soon as I don't feel I'm the best player on the court, I'll be done."