NEW YORK — Zach Edey is taking his 7-foot-4 body to Memphis to begin his NBA profession.
Edey, the previous Purdue heart who grew to become the primary participant in additional than 40 years to win The Related Press’ males’s faculty basketball participant of the 12 months award in back-to-back seasons, was taken by the Grizzlies with the ninth choose in Wednesday’s NBA draft.
And so begins the method of seeing how his sport interprets to the following stage. Edey might be one of many tallest gamers within the NBA this coming season; in 2023-24, solely San Antonio’s Rookie of the 12 months Victor Wembanyama, Houston’s Boban Marjanovic and Phoenix’s Bol Bol had been listed at 7-foot-3 or taller.
Edey averaged 22.3 factors and 12.9 rebounds as a junior, then 25.2 factors and 12.2 rebounds throughout a senior season wherein he led Purdue to the NCAA title sport in opposition to Connecticut.
Edey is certainly one of solely six gamers to have received the AP participant of the 12 months award, which dates again to the 1960-61 season, on a number of events. The others: Ohio State’s Jerry Lucas, UCLA’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Invoice Walton, North Carolina State’s David Thompson and Virginia’s Ralph Sampson. Lucas, Abdul-Jabbar, Walton, Thompson and Edey had been all two-time winners; Sampson was a three-time AP award winner.