Gradey Dick Just Declared For the NBA Draft

He recently completed his first season at Kansas

Grady Dick of Kansas
Brock Cunningham of the Texas Longhorns shoots the ball against Gradey Dick of the Kansas Jayhawks
Jamie Squire / Staff, Getty Images

Last year, Gradey Dick was named Gatorade Player of the Year — an award given to the athlete deemed to be the best high school basketball player in the country. (Past recipients include Ben Simmons, Jayson Tatum and LeBron James.) After graduating, he enrolled at Kansas, where he had an outstanding first season. But it doesn’t look like he’ll be there for long — Dick just announced his intention to enter this year’s NBA draft.

The news came via ESPN and through a post on Dick’s own Twitter account:

“As a kid from Kansas, I have fulfilled my goal of playing at my dream college,” Dick wrote. “I cannot thank Jayhawk Nation enough for the love and support you have shown to me and my family. I will always have Kansas in my heart but now I have to chase the ultimate dream that I have had since I first started playing ball.”

Dick expanded on that in comments made to ESPN. “My goal is to be with a NBA team that is a great fit for me, and I look forward to giving 110% to whoever selects me,” he said in an interview. “In the end, I just want to make my family proud in everything that I do.”

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The draft is set to take place on June 22. As for when Dick might be selected, ESPN had him slated as the 11th pick overall, NBADraft.net placed him 8th and Bleacher Report predicts he’ll be selected 7th. Between now and then, there’s sure to be more discussion of which teams might emerge as likely destinations for him for the 2023-24 season.

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