2 former Bradenton IMG Academy basketball players picked in NBA Draft. Who are they?
Two March Madness stars with ties to Bradenton’s IMG Academy were picked in the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft.
Purdue’s Zach Edey and Illinois’ Terrence Shannon Jr. were selected.
The Memphis Grizzlies chose Edey with the ninth pick, while the Minnesota Timberwolves took Shannon Jr. with the 27th pick.
Edey led the Boilermakers to the NCAA championship game, where they lost to UConn.
The 7-foot-4 center is a Toronto, Canada native who played his senior high school season at IMG Academy.
Edey averaged 25.2 points, 12.2 rebounds. 2.2 blocks and 2.0 assists per game in his senior year, which included scoring the third-most in NCAA Tournament history when he compiled 177 points. Edey was the 2023-2024 men’s Wooden Award winner, given annually to the best college basketball player.
“He plays with the mean streak to take advantage of his rare physical tools,” ESPN wrote in a pre-draft analysis about Edey. “What kind of answers he can find defending in pick-and-roll will dictate just how smooth his transition will be to the NBA.”
A fifth-year senior, Shannon Jr. led the Illini to the Elite Eight. Illinois fell to eventual national champion UConn.
Shannon, a Chicago native, played one year of prep school at IMG Academy. He was picked weeks after being found not guilty of felony rape and aggravated assault by a Kansas jury stemming from an alleged September 2023 incident in Lawrence, Kansas.
“The off-court reputation is sterling. Talk to the coaches at Texas Tech. Talk to the coaches at Illinois. They don’t say good things. They say amazing things,” Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly told ESPN. “Obviously he was on the wrong end of a really unfortunate situation, and his ability to play through that and play winning basketball for a great coach in Brad Underwood, we just think he brings toughness.”
A 6-foot-6 shooting guard, Shannon Jr. averaged 23.0 points per game, scoring 26 or more points in three NCAA Tournament wins before being held to eight points in the loss to UConn.
The NBA Draft’s second round begins Thursday at 4 p.m.
