CAMP PENDLETON, California –
Longtime military basketball coach Theodus Green remembers the day a young Army sergeant walked into his office at U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz in Baumholder, Germany, during the fall of 2013.
Green instantly recognized Justin Jordan, a member of the Baumholder varsity men’s basketball team. He had seen the Soldier coordinating other Army varsity sports teams at Baumholder. The then-26-year-old Jordan served as a player-coach for flag football, volleyball and softball teams at Baumholder, a rural, landlocked town nestled in the German countryside.
Jordan had grown tired of losing. He wanted to learn from Green, a former Army varsity basketball coach, how to consistently win basketball games.
Green coached Jordan for two seasons before the Soldier changed assignments to return to the U.S. When Jordan came back to USG Baumholder again in 2018, Green saw how much he had matured as a basketball player.
Green decided to let Jordan run practices. The players responded to Jordan’s coaching, placing their trust in the Soldier.
“The first thing I picked up on him [was that] he was a leader — a leader of people,” said Green, who was inducted into the Military Basketball Association Hall of Fame class of 2019.
Under Green’s tutelage, Jordan learned to rally his teammates in tight contests.
The team began taking Jordan’s identity and fast style of play. They pushed the pace, keeping defenses on their heels and emulating Jordan’s intensity. The Bears played hard defense, rebounded and hustled for every loose ball, much like Jordan played as an undersized wing.
“Coach Jordan is demanding and will hold players accountable,” Green said. “As a player, he was always putting out 100%, and that’s definitely what he expects out of everyone.”
Eventually, in 2022, after six seasons as a player, Jordan took over as the Baumholder Bears’ head coach, leading them to the first round of the U.S. Military Basketball Association Championship.
Three years later, All-Army Sports named Jordan as its newest head men’s basketball coach.
Now 39, Jordan led a mostly new Army team to the 2026 Armed Forces Basketball Championship, winning four out of five games.
Each of Army’s contests came down to the wire, but under Jordan’s guidance, Army persevered to win with the game on the line. In the last contest, the All-Army team played tenacious defense during a 72-70 overtime win to clinch the gold.
“Next year, he definitely should be the Army head coach, because of the work that he put in — the dedication that he put into it,” Green said. “But this is someone that really cares about people. He cares about what he does; he puts everything into what he does.”
Intense tactician
At the 2026 Armed Forces Sports tournament, Jordan stands for the entire contest, motioning orders and encouraging his team.
The Oklahoma native prides himself on discipline — ensuring his players execute proper fundamentals, including sharp footwork, running the offense with crisp passing and boxing out on rebounds.
Jordan’s coaching wizardry began at the start of training camp in a gym at Fort Lee, Virginia, in May. There, he ran a strict camp where he used a slow, methodical process toward building a roster. He shuffled different lineups to see how smoothly different squads operated with one another. Instead of searching for the most talented players, Jordan prioritized team cohesiveness, much like his military police units in the operational Army.
He did not hesitate to cut talented but toxic players to preserve team chemistry.
“So, they could have been the best player on the team, and if they didn't fit what I thought was like my ideal, perfect team and how everybody's gelling together, then they didn't make it,” Jordan said.
He evaluated athletes based on how they conformed to or assimilated into the team’s structural framework. The team went through multiple iterations before Jordan made his final cuts.
“I had to instill into them every day, this is what we're doing,” Jordan said. “I made things routine for them so it didn't feel like nothing was altered or different from any other practice. Even right before the tournament, some of the stuff they think didn't work … started working at the tournament.
“So, when it works on the court, it makes you look good, and they start gaining trust.”
In training camp, he first met Army Sgt. Jaquan Wooten, 6-foot-9-inch Soldier assigned to Fort Hood, Texas. He read the scouting report on Wooten, which labeled him a “soft” post prospect who could potentially be bullied in the paint.
Although Wooten competed at the high school and junior college levels, he still entered camp as a raw prospect. Jordan saw Wooten’s potential.
Jordan started gradually building Wooten’s confidence because he knew plays by big men, including emphatic dunks and blocks, could turn the tide of a close game. He fed him encouraging messages and called plays that enabled Wooten to score in the post.
Jordan’s words proved to be prophetic. During the 76-67 elimination win versus the All-Marine Corps team, Wooten scored a game-high 18 points, grabbed 7 rebounds and had a contest-best 7 blocks.
In the closing seconds of the championship final versus Navy, a tense back-and-forth contest that featured numerous lead changes, Wooten delivered on both ends of the court.
First, he rotated to help defend Navy’s jumper at the top of the key. Then, after an Army guard corralled the rebound, Wooten hustled back to get ahead of the defense on a fast break. The guard saw Wooten streaking toward the hoop and flung a pass. The throw landed wide, but Wooten used his mammoth wingspan to catch the ball and finish what would become the game-clinching dunk. He also had a team-high 9 rebounds.
“When you start dunking, you create a momentum shift in the game,” Jordan told Wooten. “And other teams, once you do it several times, other teams are going to start going down because their morale level is going to go down.”
With 4 seconds left, Jordan’s All-Army players covered their defense assignments, forcing Navy into a half-court heave that fell flat.
Jordan said many players who had traditionally played for the All-Army team didn’t attend training camp, adding that some veteran team members didn’t want to adapt to a new coaching staff.
Green said Jordan spent hours preparing the team for the Armed Forces tournament. He studied film and created scenarios unique to a championship tournament, so his team could react to any situation.
For example, he changed the score in practices to see how his team would respond to playing 20 points down or down by 5. He also simulated how a team maintains both a single-point and a double-point lead.
Green said that now that Jordan has proven himself to be a winning coach, the players will respond.
“Since those players have seen what he can do ... they are willing to come in and play and listen to him, and they're going to do a great job,” he added.
After defeating the Marine Corps 75-67 to open the contest, the All-Army team edged out Navy 73-72. The team bounced back from an 85-82 loss to Air Force to beat the Marines again, 76-67.
Each game had different players contributing. Former West Point player Kwabena Davis scored 20 in the Air Force loss, the most by any Soldier in a balanced Army attack. Against Air Force, Army fell behind by 22 points but rallied to tie the game and force OT before losing by three. Army had a different leading scorer in each of the six contests with Army Spc. Travis Baker, Pfc. Charles Leftwich, Spc. Jacari Chambers, Wooten, Sgt. Randall Haley each taking turns.
“I like to get all the players involved,” Jordan said. “Because you never know when it's going to be somebody's night to shine. And you wouldn't know it if I just left you on the bench or buried you on the bench.”
Jordan’s selection as All-Army head coach and now Armed Forces basketball head coach began in U.S. installation gyms, where he used the skills he learned as a military police officer to organize athletic events and team activities.
A resurgent league
From 2017-2018, Army installation varsity teams decided to end the Army basketball leagues in Europe as a cost-cutting measure.
The news devastated Soldier hoops players stationed in Europe.
The Army post sits on a forested, rocky plateau in the small German town of 10,000. Famously nicknamed “the Rock,” geography separates the landlocked installation from most urban cities in the Rhineland countryside.
The league provided an avenue for Soldiers coping with their first overseas assignment or troops who suffered from homesickness.
Green and Jordan knew the impact of the league. They’d seen players who reenlisted in the Army so they could continue competing for their installation’s varsity team.
So in late 2019, Green and Jordan organized their own league, the Varsity Military Basketball League Europe. Originally starting with four teams, the league now has 11 men’s teams, from nearly every U.S. installation in Europe, and four women’s teams. Green took the role of league commissioner, and Jordan became deputy commissioner.
Jordan, a versatile athlete, quarterbacked the All-Army, European flag football team and competed in volleyball and softball. In addition to his athletic achievements, his organizational and planning skills enabled him to take on multiple coaching duties outside of his role as a military police officer.
He has also coached the All-Europe varsity basketball team, composed of the best military hoops players stationed in Europe.
The Soldier plans to retire from the Army in October, after 20 years of service. He will continue serving as deputy commissioner of VMBLE and will take a position at a Baumholder fitness center. Jordan hopes to continue coaching the All-Army and Baumholder Bears hoops teams but said current Soldiers will be given priority for both jobs.
Green said that Jordan could eventually eclipse his coaching achievements due to his preparation and innovation.
“He’s a winner,” Green said. “He knows how to win.”