Jeff Granger had a solid four years as a guard with the Hampton Pirates from 2002-2006. He had 1,334 points (average 10.9/game) in 122 games as the Pirates made the NCAA tournament his senior year.
After wrapping up a pro career in Europe, he went into the business world in insurance and the financial industry. It was five years ago when his life completely changed.
"I was fired from my company in 2019", he said. "July 12th of 2019 and I opened Granger Financial on July 15th, 2019 and we took our first customer on July 16th".
What seemed like a dark moment, the 40 year old saw nothing but opportunity. He and his wife Ebone started the insurance company, they bounced back.
"You've seen me miss a lot of shots", he said jokingly. "Did I ever stop shooting? I didn't stop shooting", he laughed.
It's with that confidence Granger finds himself branching out to bigger spaces of business showing he can hang with anybody, much like basketball.
"You fight and you know you have to fight. I'm from Newark, New Jersey so the resolve is there".
Granger sees to it that he also reaches back to where it all started at Hampton University.
"It's my responsibility to go back and be apart of the program. It's my responsibility to give these guys a different sense of what success looks like after basketball".