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James Nnaji, who played with the Knicks during the summer league but was recently given college eligibility by the NCAA and joined Baylor, made his collegiate debut Saturday in the team’s loss to TCU. He played 16 minutes and recorded five points and four rebounds along with four fouls. The Knicks acquired — and still own — his draft rights from the Hornets as part of the three-team Towns trade ahead of last season.
7-foot center James Nnaji has committed to Baylor and will play the second half of the season with the Bears, a source told On3. He’s been granted four years of eligibility by the NCAA. The 21-year-old Nigerian big man was selected 31st overall in the 2023 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons, but his rights were moved to Charlotte. Despite being drafted, he never signed a standard NBA contract. In 2024, his rights were moved once again, this time to the New York Knicks, as part of the three-team Karl-Anthony Towns trade. After not appearing in an NBA regular-season game, Nnaiji continued his professional career overseas, most recently playing for FC Barcelona in the Spanish Liga ACB and the EuroLeague before mutually parting ways with the team in August. Earlier this year, Nnaji appeared in NBA Summer League with the Knicks, averaging 3.2 points and 3.6 rebounds across five games.
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Jon Rothstein: Matthew Mayer is returning to Baylor next season, per @DraftExpress. Was an early entry candidate to the 2021 NBA Draft. Will be a massive breakout guy in 21-22.
In 1959, a West Virginia hotel and local restaurants refused to serve Baylor and his African American teammates. As a way of protest, Baylor decided to boycott the game on Jan. 16, 1959, in Charleston, West Virginia. “He was a rookie NBA player, and, in those days, the NBA only had eight teams. It was fascinating to imagine the kind of travel and lives that they had, and they didn’t have a really big fan base. But Elgin was really the star of the team [Minneapolis Lakers], but he was turned away at the hotel when they got to West Virginia. That was enough. He said, ‘They can’t just let me out of a cage like an animal to play the game and not treat me like a human being the rest of the time,'” said Bryant.
Jared Butler entered the 2020 NBA Draft while keeping open his option to return to Baylor for his junior season. "To my teammates, this season was a special one, though it got cut short. There is no other group of men I would've taken this journey with. We are brothers for life," tweeted Butler.
Women's nominations include first-timers Swin Cash and Tamika Catchings, along with current San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon and Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, who is nominated both as a coach and player. Former Chicago Bulls star Toni Kukoc heads the list of international honorees.
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That remains to be seen, he said while meeting with a couple of reporters in the tunnel of Hilton Coliseum before Iowa State’s Tuesday night game against Baylor. “I’m open right now,” said Hoiberg before watching a game as a fan for the first time since he was being recruited out of Ames High School. “We’ll see. I’m just looking for a great opportunity, whatever level that might be.” It sounded like Hoiberg, who was fired with a season left on his Chicago Bulls contract, preferred coaching to working in an NBA front office. “If the right front office did come around, I would potentially look at that,” Hoiberg said. “Coaching is the first thing on my mind, but if the right front office job came around, I’d look at it.”
BC Khimki added American power forward Perry James Jones III to the roster. The contract has been agreed for one season. The 25 years old player arrives from the NBA D-League, where he played for Iowa Energy and Oklahoma City Blue. Before that, he played for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA for 3 years, after joining from Baylor Bears of the NCAA.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to be able to see what it takes," Riley said, running through his experience playing with West and Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain, coaching against Larry Bird and Kevin McHale and Robert Parish and so on. "If you can get three of those kinds of players and fill it out with some other good guys, then you might be ahead of the curve....So there are a lot of ways to skin a cat. "For me, it's not through the draft, because lottery picks are living a life of misery. That season is miserable. And if you do three or four years in a row to get lottery picks, then I'm in an insane asylum. And the fans will be, too. So who wants to do that?"
