Next weekend a milestone for Jarrett Jack

In a 24-hour stretch next weekend, Jarrett Jack will play in two basketball games and receive one bachelor's degree.  The Nets backup point guard will leave Brooklyn Friday night after the Nets game vs. the Sixers , fly to Georgia Tech in Atlanta to receive a long-sought degree in business administration, then rejoin his teammates in Charlotte where they play the Hornets.

It's not quite reminiscent of Vince Carter's famous 2001 graduation ceremony and controversy.  That was in the Eastern Conference semi-finals. On the morning of Game 7, after attending practice, Carter flew to Chapel Hill, NC to attend his graduation at the University of North Carolina. He then flew back to Philly on a private jet ... and missed a game --and series-- winning shot at the buzzer, leading to heavy criticism.

But there is one similarity: Carter and Jack had both promised their mothers they would return to school and get their degrees after leaving college early to join the NBA.  It's taken Jack ten years, but he sees it as one of his life's great milestones.

"It's just something that I want to share with my family,'' Jack said. "That's a personal achievement, family achievement, that I would accept for myself and am able to achieve, and I want to be there for that moment. I don't want to let that moment go by. It's going to be probably the most special moment, if not the biggest moment, of my life. That and getting drafted, they kind of align from my perspective.''