NBA players from USC are Dewayne Dedmon, Taj Gibson, Evan Mobley, Isaiah Mobley, and others. Evan and Isaiah are currently playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
National Basketball Association teams have drafted over 50 athletes from the University of South Carolina men's basketball team. Jack Nichols was one of them who was picked during the 1940s season.
The USC Trojans compete in the Pac-12 Conference. The team plays at Galen Center as their home. Each year, the institution produces some of the best prospects for the third-richest professional sports league in the world.
The NBA Draft is organized annually to allocate eligible athletes to the teams. The majority of the drafted players are college athletes.
Any athletes who wish to join the league and have completed their four-year college are automatically qualified. Likewise, he needs to be 19 years old to enter the Draft.
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DeMar DeRozan
Famous USC basketball players include DeMar DeRozan, the shooting guard of the Chicago Bulls. DeRozan joined the team in August 2021.
Toronto Raptors acquired him in the 2009 NBA Draft. In 2010, he scored then career-high 37 points for the team against Houston Rockets. After playing nine seasons with the team, he was bartered to San Antonio Spurs in July 2018.
In his debut match with the Spurs, DeRozan scored 28 points, winning over Minnesota Timberwolves with a 112-108. He stayed with the team for three seasons, making 2020-2021 his final year as the Spurs scorer.
Overall, the Compton native has played 1031 regular season games and still counting. He was named NBA All-Star six times and All-NBA Second Team twice.
The 33-year-old athlete is prominent in and out of the court. Over 3.3 million people follow him on his official Instagram handle, while he is a follower of only 251 users. Well, that on his Twitter account is 775.4 thousand.
Little may know, DeMar also owns a YouTube channel with his name. He has amassed over 15.4 thousand subscribers on the channel, that he created on October 28, 2021.
Bill Sharman
Best USC basketball players of all time, Bill Sharman, played with two clubs in his 11-year-long NBA career. Sharman ended his playing career in 1961.
The Abilene native played for the Trojans as a shooting guard for five years starting in 1946. Washington Capitols selected him in the second round of the 1950 Draft.
However, after his debut season, the Capitols traded him to the Boston Celtics in exchange for Charles Edward Shave. With the team, he won the NBA championship five times.
Sharman was the first North American sports figure to win the championship ten times, four as a player, once as a head mentor, and five as an executive collectively.
The G.O.A.T of college basketball began coaching after retirement. Starting with the Cleveland Pipers of the ABL in 1962, he mentored the San Francisco Warriors for two seasons from 1966.
He penned with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1971 and helped them win their first championship after over a decade in 1972. That year, he became the "NBA Coach of the Year."
Basketball Hall of Fame 1976 later shifted to the Lakers front office. As the GM of the club, he trained the athletes to win the championship twice in 1980 and 1982. Three more titles followed the team ( 1985, 1987, and 1988) when Sharman was the president of the Trojans.
Evan Mobley
One of the USC basketball players in NBA is Evan Mobley. Mobley plays power forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The San Diego native grew up in a sports family. Thus, he started playing B-ball at an early age. His father, Eric, is a former basketball player.
Eric taught him and his older brother, Isaiah, to score a basket. Now, both brothers are teammates with the Cavaliers. The team selected Evan in the 2021 Draft and his brother a year later.
Prior to that, Mobley played with the Trojans and became one of the highest-ranked players to join the program. In his debut match against California Baptist, Evan scored 21 points and had nine rebounds.
After Cleveland signed him to the team, Mobley made his NBA debut on October 20, 2021. He scored 17 points, six assists, and had nine rebounds against the Houston Rockets.
That season, he was named the NBA Eastern Rookie of the Month. On May 9, 2023, Evan has titled the All-Defensive First Team of the league.
Nikola Vucevic
One of the NBA players who went to USC after high school is Nikola Vucevic. Vucevic enrolled at the university in 2008.
The Montenegrin athlete previously played B-Ball at Stoneridge Preparatory. Babacar Sy used to train him and he was the leader. Later, he played three seasons with the Trojans until 2011.
The Philadelphia 76ers allocated him to the team with the 16th overall pick on June 23, 2011. In his debut NBA career, he played 51 games with the 76ers.
On August 10, 2012, Nikola was traded to Orlando Magic. During his nine-year tenure with the Magic, he was honored with NBA All-Star twice.
The 32-year-old has been playing with the Chicago Bulls since March 2021. On March 27, he debuted with the Bulls and scored a game-high 21 points.
On the personal front, Nikola has been married to his longtime beau Nikoleta Pavlovic since 2016. They are parents to two children. Their third kid, named Lazar Vucevic, was born on June 11, 2023.
Onyeka Okongwu
Top USC basketball players include Onyeka Okongu of the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks attained him with the sixth overall pick in the 2020 Draft.
While in high school, Onyeka played with Lonzo and LaMelo Ball at Chino Hills High School for four years. In fact, he led his team to win three state titles. He played a single season for USC and became the Trojans' best player in 2019-2020.
On November 24, 2020, Okongwu and the Atlanta Hawks signed a contract worth $26.42 million for four years. That means he makes an annual average salary of $6.6 million while carrying a cap hit of $8,109,063.
Onyeka will be a free unrestricted agent in 2024. To date, he has played three seasons and 178 regular games. He has scored 7.9 PPG and 5.7 rebounds.
USC Basketball Roster 2023-24
USC basketball roster 2023-24 comprises Brandon Gardner, DJ Rodman, Kobe Johnson, and others. Forward Kijani Wright is also on the list.
College basketball teams can have up to 15 athletes on the roster. 13 enter the stadium in uniform, out of which five athletes are on the court at a time and eight players are on the bench.
In the case of the Trojans, there are 13 athletes listed for the coming season. Eight of them are forwards are remaining five are guards.
Andy Enfield, the team's coach since 2013 will lead the players to their 17th season as the members of the PAC-12 Conference. This season will be their last with the conference as Trojans are joining the Big Ten Conference in July next year.
The followings are the players who will be performing in the 2023-2024 season for the club:
Forward
- Brandon Gardner, Raleigh, North Carolina
- DJ Rodman, Newport Beach, California
- Kobe Johnson, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Vincent Iwuchukwu, San Antonio, Texas
- Arrinten Page, Marietta, Georgia
- Joshua Morgan, Sacramento, California
- Harrison Hornery, Toowoomba, Australia
- Kijani Wright, Los Angeles
Guard
- Isaiah Collier, Marietta, Georgia
- Oziyah Sellers, Hayward, California
- Boogie Ellis, San Diego, California
- Bronny James, Los Angeles, California
- Zach Brooker, Calabasas, California
USC Basketball Ranking
USC basketball ranking rose to No. 13 in the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 preseason college basketball rankings.
It is based on the team returning four scorers from a team that won 22 games and secured a No. 10 seed in the 2023 NCAA tournament.
Those four out of seven scorers are Boogie Ellis, Kobe Johnson, Joshua Morgan, and Vincent Iwuchukwu. Also, the credit goes to prefigured guards Isaiah Collier and Bronny James.
James is the son of the NBA's all-time scoring legend, LeBron James. He is a four-star prospect ranked 26th in 247 Sports'Class of 2023 rankings.
The Cleveland native announced his commitment to the Trojans in early May. He chose the club over Ohio State, Oregon, G-League Ignite, and Overtime Elite.
