Marc Jackson’s sons are following in his footsteps. Here’s how Philly hoops played a part in it.

Marc Jackson took on a father-figure role at a time when those around him were worried about passing classes and which party they were attending that weekend.

The Philadelphia native was 18 years old when his brother, Basil, was born.

“I was so young, but I raised my little brother like a son,” said Jackson, a former Temple and 76ers center who is now a basketball analyst for NBC Sports Philadelphia.

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Unlike his older brother, who played for five NBA teams during his seven-year career, Basil didn’t have a passion for basketball. That was, until later on.

“After he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, he openly told me that he wished I did work with him in basketball,” Jackson said. “That touched me. I kind of felt that I failed him as far as basketball is concerned. I didn’t want to put pressure on him. I thought I was doing the right thing. But then he openly told me that he wished I put what I knew on him.”

Fast forward to when Jackson became a father and had an opportunity to pass along his knowledge of the game to his sons, Shareef (now at Lafayette), Sammy (who’s heading to Virginia Commonwealth), and Shayne (a rising star at Roman Catholic) — and they each are following in his footsteps.

The two oldest, Shareef and Sammy, were under age 6 when they discovered a stack of cones their father had left sitting around. With no hesitation, Sammy set them up, grabbed his little basketball, and started dribbling among them.

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Marc Jackson said. “When I saw him do that, I remembered my brother, and I looked at them and said, ‘Sons, let’s go.’”

Marc Jackson didn’t touch a basketball until he was 15.

He was in eighth grade when a group of his classmates jumped him, leaving him bedridden for four months as his grandmother nursed him back to health.

He was struck in the head with a brick, and doctors subsequently discovered a tumor there. After having the tumor removed and healing from his other injuries, Jackson moved in with his mother to begin his freshman year at Roman Catholic.

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That’s when Walt Byrd, a former Temple center who played in the American Basketball Association, approached him and said, “I want to teach you basketball.”

“That’s how I got started in the game,” Jackson said. “That was my first true friend, a basketball.

“Once I went to Roman, I met people that did not look like me, that did not come from my environment, that did not go through the trauma that I went through. And what it taught me was that life was bigger than my community.”

It only made sense for Jackson to send his three sons to Roman, even though he raised them in Tampa, Fla.

“I wanted them to have that Philadelphia blood in them,” he said.

After graduating from Roman, Marc attended VCU. But during his freshman year, his brother was born. He transferred to Temple ahead of his sophomore year to be closer to family.

“[Basil] was with me as much as possible,” Jackson said. “He would even sleep in the dorms with me sometimes.”

And Jackson was keen on making sure his little brother had a normal upbringing.

“When I was younger, I used to call him Dad,” Basil said. “But the memories I do have as a kid, at least on [Temple’s] campus, were always fun. I think Marc, just given the situation he’s grown up out of, I think he always wanted to make sure that [I could be a kid]. He always thought that kids shouldn’t have to think of the environment around them, they should just be kids.”

After his NBA career, Jackson moved on to his next job: fatherhood. It’s a role he’s taken seriously.

“If you give a young kid everything, he will make nothing, but if a young kid comes from nothing, he can make everything,” Jackson said. “I truly believe that. So even though my sons grew up with a much better life than I did, I was still very hard” on them.

And that’s where Jackson’s two rules come into play: no disrespect and no laziness.

“I love my dad to death,” Shareef said. “It takes a lot to be a guy who came from a household where his dad wasn’t around, and then to grow up and be like, ‘Hey, I have all this money, I have all this fame now,’ but for him, he wants us to be smart guys, to be guys who affect [people] in a positive way.”

Basil agreed: “He runs a tight ship. I brought home a B one time and we had a conversation. It was weird telling the other kids, ‘Oh, my brother grounded me.’”

But that tight ship has allowed Jackson’s sons to flourish.

With their father’s foundation, the three are learning to make names for themselves in basketball.

Shareef started 30 games, averaging 22 minutes and 10 points, in his freshman season at Lafayette.

Sammy, a four-star recruit, will play at VCU in the fall under Drexel Hill native Phil Martelli Jr. He surpassed 1,000 career points during his time at Roman Catholic.

“My dad has given me a lot of knowledge on what it takes to be next-level,” Sammy said. “He’s done that my whole life. So just me looking at him and seeing where he played and knowing that it’s possible to go to the NBA [means a lot].”

The youngest brother, Shayne, is the rising star of the Jackson family. He wrapped up his freshman year at Roman and looks to make a continued impact during his next three seasons with the Cahillites.

Their father, however, is more concerned about what they will do after stepping away from basketball.

“I want them to understand the value in waking up,” Jackson said. “Waking up is the most important thing that can happen to you in life. Basketball comes and goes, but what I want for my sons is to value every day. To live every day.”