Harlem lost a streetball legend recently when Jasmine "Total Package" Mansell passed away just short of his 47th birthday. Coined the "Total Package" because he had remarkable handles and the jump shot of a guard with the post up and power moves of a forward at 6'6", he was a staple of the And 1 Mixed Tape Tour and was even featured in the company’s video game in 2006. That same year he dropped 33 points on New York Knicks forward David Lee at the Kingdome Classic in Harlem.
A graduate of John F. Kennedy HS in 1993, he attended Redemption Christian Academy in Upstate New York and Dixie State College in Utah and was all set to take Fresno State coach Jerry Tarkanian up on his scholarship offer. But when Mansell came back to the Bronx from Utah that summer, he was busted for selling drugs and he ended up doing six years – from 1998 to 2004 – in federal prison. Just like that, his NBA dreams and his prime basketball years were lost.
He took the best of his second chance when he got on the And 1 Mixtape Tours and balled out during the Dyckman Tournament and the Entertainers Basketball League at the hallowed Rucker's Court in Harlem.
During his final years he worked with the Milbank youth program, the Boys Club and Wadleigh’s boys’ basketball team and solidifying his legacy in Harlem.
Watch his fellow ball players give tribute to Total Package here:
