Beyond the Jersey: Jurnee McLaurin on Style, Creativity & Becoming

Written by Jayona Monique Dorsey
Writer, Creative Strategist, and Cultural Storyteller.
Hampton University, Class of 2027
Strategic Communications major, concentrating in Public Relations with a minor in Marketing.

For years, Jurnee McLaurin was known as a basketball player. But today, she’s learning what it means to simply be Jurnee.

From Coahoma Community College to Grambling State and, briefly, Appalachian State, basketball took her places she never imagined. Now, as a creative working in sports media and pursuing her master’s in communications at Alabama A&M, she’s discovering just how much exists beyond the game.

For Jurnee, that next chapter is rooted in creativity, authenticity, faith and a willingness to embrace the unknown.

Growing up in Soso, Mississippi, basketball wasn’t exactly Jurnee’s first choice. She was more interested in cheer and gymnastics until one of her cousins decided she wanted to play basketball.

“She didn’t want to play alone,” Jurnee recalls.

At first, Jurnee admits, “I sucked at first, like really bad.” But over time, the sport became something she grew to love and eventually, something she became really good at.

One of the biggest turning points in her journey came at Appalachian State. After signing late and becoming a student athlete at her first predominantly white institution, Jurnee quickly realized she didn’t feel at home.

“I left after the first game,” she says. “It was a big adjustment and far away from home. I didn’t feel comfortable there.”

Instead of seeing that decision as a failure, Jurnee now sees it as a leap of faith. She came home, and “that’s when everything started.”

Coming home also gave Jurnee the space to explore parts of herself that basketball and school had left little room for, including her creativity and personal style.

If there’s one thing that makes Jurnee stand out beyond the court, it’s her style.

Three words? “Original. Colorful. I love colors. Eccentric.”

For Jurnee, fashion is more than what you wear. It’s another way athletes get to introduce themselves to the world outside of their uniforms.

“Most people know you for the uniform you put on,” she explains. “It gives athletes a moment to express themselves, their personality, and who they really are as a person outside of the uniform.”

In an era where tunnel fits can become almost as anticipated as the game itself, that self-expression matters. For Jurnee, it has also become part of figuring out who she is when basketball is no longer the first thing people see.

“I’m still dealing with this now,” Jurnee admits. “Anytime someone from home is like, ‘Oh, you were such a good player. You still hoop?’ It’s like I got so used to JUST being that.”

After spending years being “basketball,” she’s learning how to simply be herself.

“Now I get to just be me.”

That freedom has opened up an entirely different side of her.

“I’m very, very creative,” she says. “I feel like I’ve always had a creative side. Basketball and school took up all my time. I literally didn’t have time for anything else.”

Now, she has the space to explore it. One day she might sew. The next, she might paint. More importantly, she has the time to “unlock more potential.”

That creativity has naturally found its way into her professional life. Having experienced athletics from in front of the camera, Jurnee now works behind it, creating content and helping athletes tell their stories.

“I’ll speak for the players here,” she says. “I know what they’re going through.”

Her experience allows her to do more than create visuals. She helps athletes recognize the stories they already carry and figure out how to communicate them.

During one team bonding activity, players were asked to tell their stories. Many responded, “I don’t know how.”

“I help translate their stories through creativity and communications,” Jurnee explains. “And I help them learn how to tell their own story.”

Working as a woman in athletics, particularly in creative media, has been “interesting,” Jurnee says with a laugh. While there are plenty of women working in sports, she’s noticed that men, especially photographers and videographers, often receive more attention and recognition. As a Black woman, she’s navigating an industry where being seen and being recognized are not always the same thing.

“I wouldn’t say I have it easy,” she says. But she’s also learned that her work speaks for itself.

“I hear a lot of, ‘We see your work and we want this to look like yours.’”

For Jurnee, that recognition is a reminder that while she may have to work harder to be seen, the impact of her creative voice is becoming impossible to ignore.

That same mindset is carrying her into whatever comes next.

“You have an idea of how you want things to go. It may not always go that way. Someone will always be better, or better at something. And you can’t allow that to make you go backwards. Stay building your specific skill.”

Jurnee graduates with her master’s in communications from Alabama A&M in December, but she isn’t pretending to have the five year plan figured out.

Sports? Corporate? Freelance?

“I don’t know yet,” she says. “Whatever direction the Lord wants me to go is where I’ll go.”

What does she hope people know her for five years from now?

“My creativity.”

And when asked what legacy means to her, Jurnee thinks beyond herself.

“Legacy to me means building something that generations after me will be able to utilize.”

Maybe that’s the heart of this next chapter: building something without knowing exactly what it will look like yet.

If basketball introduced the world to Jurnee, she knows it also placed her in a box, “without putting me in a box.”

Now, she wants to show the world everything that exists outside of the game.

“In this next chapter, I want to show everything that Jurnee has to offer.”

Towards the end of our conversation, she repeated, “I don’t know.” But there is power in not knowing. There is freedom in leaving room for something bigger than what you could have planned for yourself.

Because the one thing Jurnee does know is where her faith lies. She trusts that wherever the Lord leads her, that is where she is meant to go. Whether that is sports, corporate, freelance, or something she hasn’t even imagined yet, she is willing to follow.

Basketball may have introduced the world to Jurnee McLaurin, but it was never the whole story.

Now, she gets to write the rest.

And if her creativity is any indication, whatever comes next will be worth watching.