Jamil seems to be an adept basketball player, impressing a first-year Diasomnia student who says, “Check out that guy. He broke through three defenders like they were nothing. That crossover dribble was sick!”
When Idia comments on seeing Jamil and Azul perform a “bizarrely complicated and time-consuming secret handshake” in Azul’s dream Jamil says, “I see those a lot in street basketball,” so it is possible that he has a personal interest in basketball. He also has a voice line about playing basketball with a friend back in middle school.
During Beanfest Floyd describes a talented member of the basketball team whom he never identifies by name, but is possibly Jamil, saying:
“Let’s say there’s a guy in the same year as me in the Basketball Club who plays way better than me. He lands all these good shots, he reads the flow of the game and keeps poppin’ up in prime passing spots for me, and he always looks so SMUG doin’ it. Makes me wanna pull off some sick moves that make him look dumb in comparison. I’d be WAY more willing to put up with lousy cleaning and boring practice drills if it meant | had a shot at wiping that smug look off his face.”
Floyd has a club wear voice line of, “I tried to steal the ball from Sea Snake during a game, but he slipped past me with a change-of-pace dribble! He won’t get by me again.”
In an attempt to wake Floyd up from his dream of Book 7 Jade says, “In our practice basketball games, (Floyd) hardly ever break past me when I’m blocking (him),” explaining, “Aggressive playstyles have their place, but pure offense to the exclusion of all else gets you nowhere in basketball.” Floyd responds “I feel like I’ve heard that boring lecture a thousand times already…”
In Azul’s dream of Book 7 Jamil separates a dream-Floyd from Azul by calling him for joint basketball practice with another school, describing a talented mermaid-player on an opposing team who has only been on land for two years who “shuts down feints like they’re nothing,” successfully convincing the dream-Floyd to join him and tricking Azul into allowing it.
In an early vignette Jamil asks Floyd to tell their club captain that he will not be able to go to basketball practice because he needs to do Kalim’s homework but Floyd responds, “Go tell him yourself! I don’t feel like goin’ to basketball practice either.”
In another vignette Floyd attends basketball practice but refuses to play, trying to teach himself how to breakdance and convincing Jamil to join him, which Ace references in Book 5 when asking Jamil to teach him how to dance for the VDC audition.
Jamil tells a story about cooking lunch for the basketball team during a training camp, and while responses were positive at first they later shifted into commentary on how “plain and brown” the presentation was. Jamil says, “My sister’s made the same comment before, but I was taken aback to hear it from the whole club,” and with the colorful dish he produces for the Master Chef course he “can give them something they won’t complain about.”
Jamil is also in charge of cooking fish for the basketball club during Vargas Camp and has a voice line of, “I make honeyed lemons for the club on occasion. I used to just make them for myself, but everyone likes them so much I ended up sharing. They’re always gone in seconds.”
At the start of Vargas Camp, Jamil comments on how Ace and Floyd have “not a shred of urgency between (them)” despite how the basketball club might be disbanded if they fail any of Vargas’ challenges. The first challenge involves setting up their tends, but after Floyd finishing setting up his own he changes his mind about the color and starts again. Jamil says, “Are you seriously about to redo your entire tent?!,” and Floyd responds, “You could stand to pick a brighter tent yourself, Sea Snake. Beige is so vanilla. Am I right or what, Crabby?,” in reference to Ace, who says, “Nope, don’t drag me into any of this!”
Jamil says, “I question whether the Basketball Club can last the whole three days out here,” and Grim observes, “Jamil’s always gettin’ run through the wringer by his dorm, and his club ain’t lookin’ much different.”
Jamil says that, for his birthday, “My basketball teammates gave me a towel and a wristband. Apparently, they wanted to express their gratitude for everything I do.”
