2021 NBA Draft headlined by USA youth world champions, strong European pros

BROOKLYN (USA) - With such attention on the Tokyo Olympics, the 2021 NBA Draft fittingly supplied a healthy dose of players who already have won a youth national team gold medal - topped by a quartet of expected superstars who twice were crowned FIBA youth world champions.

Cade Cunningham was the first player to shake hands with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver as the number one overall pick. And the new hope of the Detroit Pistons is one of 23 players in the draft who have represented their country at a FIBA competition - with Cunningham having won the title at the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2019.

 
Once the NBA season starts, Cunningham will face a handful of his teammates from the USA squad that hoisted the trophy in 2019 in Crete as six other Americans were selected in the 2021 draft - including Jalen Green, Evan Mobley, Scottie Barnes and Jalen Suggs - all in the four following four picks.

 
The other Americans drafted were Ziaire Williams (10th) and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (32nd). Tyrese Haliburton, Kira Lewis and Reggie Perry meanwhile were also all part of that 2019 U19 team and had their names called in the 2020 NBA Draft.

 
The quartet of Green, Mobley, Barnes and Suggs also helped the United States to the title at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2018 with Barnes, Green and Suggs having claimed the trophy together at the FIBA U16 Americas Championship 2017.  Also on that U16 team was No. 31 selection Isaiah Todd.

Robinson-Earl, meanwhile also won a continental crown, claiming gold at the FIBA U18 Americas Championship 2018 - along with fellow draftees Quentin Grimes (25th) and Ayo Dosunmu (38th).

 
A total of 18 international players from 15 countries were selected, led by Josh Giddey, who was the No. 6 pick off the board with the Australian heading to the Oklahoma City Thunder followed by seventh pick Jonathan Kuminga of Democratic Republic of Congo, 

Giddey represents a number of intriguing aspects to the 2021 draft, including his getting a chance to see where he stands on the world stage after participating in the 2020 Basketball Without Borders Global Camp. Also part of that camp were Canadian Josh Primo (12th pick) and France talent Juhann Begarin (45th).

 

Second round picks Charles Bassey (Nigeria), Sandro Mamukelashvili (Georgia) and Balsa Koprivica (Serbia) also took part in the global camp in the past while Kai Jones of Bahamas participated in the BWB America camp.

Giddey also comes to the NBA after playing last season professionally in the Australian NBL league - following a trio of Americans who went Down Under instead of college to then be drafted: Terrance Ferguson from Adelaide 36ers in 2017 and LaMelo Ball of the Illawarra Hawks and RJ Hampton of the New Zealand Breakers in 2019.

 

While Giddey just missed his chance to play at the Olympics - being one of the last cuts from the Boomers squad - the 23rd pick Usman Garuba missed his opportunity to meet the NBA commissioner at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn because he is in Tokyo with a Spanish team dreaming of finally claiming the gold medal after silvers in 1984, 2008 and 2012 and bronze in 2016.

Garuba doing work in the paint against Japan in both teams' Tokyo 2020 Olympic opening games 

Garuba knows the feeling of having a gold medal around his neck. He was MVP in guiding Spain to the title at the FIBA U16 European Championship 2016 - at just 14 years of age. Garuba then teamed up with 30th overall selection Santi Aldama to win the FIBA U18 European Championship 2019 with Aldama taking the MVP trophy. Garuba has an impressive collection of honors otherwise, including being named the EuroLeague Rising Star and Spanish ACB league Best Young Player in 2021 and winning the 2019 ANGT pan-European club crown with Real Madrid.

 
Two other draftees have won a continental crown for their respective countries as 50th overall pick Filip Petrusev helped Serbia to back-to-back FIBA U18 European Championship golds in 2017 and 2018 and Neemias Queta (39th) guided Portugal to the title at the FIBA U20 European Championship Division B 2019.

 
The 30 NBA franchises got a special look at Petrusev this summer and what he could possibly do in the league as he was a major part of Serbia’s team at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament. Two other Europeans also used the Olympic qualifiers as a showcase were Turkey big man Alperen Sengun, who ended up being picked 16th after his star showing at the OQT Victoria, and Lithuania playmaker Rokas Jokubaitis at least ended up being selected 34th despite not Lithuania missing out on their Olympic bid in their Final loss at the OQT Kaunas.

Both have already become staples with their professional teams as Sengun was named this season’s Turkish league MVP despite being just 18 years old and Jokubaitis played his third season in the EuroLeague in 2020-21.

 
All that being said, the first European to be selected in the 2021 NBA Draft was Franz Wagner of Germany, who went eighth overall to Orlando. Not only did he match Detlef Schrempf in 1985 as the earliest German to ever get drafted - Dirk Nowitzki was ninth in 1998 - but Wagner might get a chance to play with his brother Moritz Wagner, who is an unrestricted free agent with Orlando. The Wagners could become the 87th pair of brothers to play in the NBA.

The other international players to enter the 2021 NBA Draft roll call were Canadian Dalano Banton (46th) and Georgios Kalaitzakis of Greece (60th).

 
The 2021 NBA Draft also could be a landmark event as three players - Green, Kuminga and Todd - were all selected after playing last season with the Ignite team in the G-League instead of college. Only seven other players previously played in the NBA’s official minor league before being drafted by an NBA team, including Serbian Alen Smailagic in 2019, Greece’s Thanasis Antetokounmpo in 2014 and Nigerian Chukwudiebere Maduabum in 2011.

FIBA