The injury-bug bit Jerome Davis at the most inopportune time.

Davis was in the midst of attending training camp with one of Mexico’s top professional basketball teams when a knee injury sidelined the former Boyd Anderson High School standout in early October.

“Everything was going good. If I didn’t get injured, I would have made the team,” said Davis, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound guard who joined Soles de Mexicali of the Mexican Professional Basketball League just days after he played on the championship team in the annual Tigertail Brothers Memorial Basketball Tournament in Big Cypress.

In mid-September, Davis, 27, flew from Florida to San Diego, where he was met by Soles officials who brought him into Mexico for the training camp.

“It was good, very high intensity,” Davis said about the camp.

Davis was about two weeks into the camp when the on-court injury occurred only a few days before the team’s preseason schedule started.

The injury was severe enough to bring him back home to the Hollywood Reservation for recuperation.

Davis has been involved this year in the creation of an all-Native American semi-pro team in South Florida that is slated to start playing in the American Basketball Association this fall, but his plans changed when Federico Brodsky, the Native team’s manager, helped land him a spot with Soles Mexicali.

“He’s a combo guard,” Brodsky said. “He can play [the] 1 or 2 [positions], and because of his physicality, he can defend 1, 2 or 3. He’s a very strong, knockdown shooter – very smart court awareness. He’s very coachable and works hard.”

Davis is not sure if he will return to pro basketball in Mexico when he is healthy again or play in South Florida, but he said he enjoyed his brief stay in Mexicali, a city with about 700,000 residents.

“I really liked the city. Everybody knows the basketball team,” Davis said.

Soles Mexicali won its league championship last season and has played against NBA Development League squads.

High on the new Native team’s agenda is providing exposure and opportunities for Native American players to play at high levels of pro basketball beyond the American Basketball Association. Team officials said Davis’ stint in Mexico is a step in the right direction.

“We achieved the goal before launching the team,” Brodsky said.