NBA Academy Games to be held in U.S.

The NBA sent a memo informing teams Thursday they are organizing the Academy Games in the United States for the first time, a source told ESPN.

The third-annual camp will be held from July 9 to 14 at the Atlanta Hawks practice facility and will feature eight teams of approximately 90 players from around the globe, including 60 from the seven NBA Academies. The academies consist of the NBA Global Academy in Australia, the NBA Academy in Senegal, the NBA Academy Latin America in Mexico, the NBA Academy India and the NBA Academy China (which has three separate facilities around China).

Previously, the NBA Academy Games were held at the Global Academy in Canberra, Australia.

Players will range in age from 15 to 19, with the majority being recruitable athletes for college coaches, who are invited to attend the event and will likely make up the majority of the spectators in attendance, along with NBA executives and league personnel.

The final NCAA live recruiting period is July 11-14, and this is a certified event that will be held in the vicinity of other sneaker-affiliated camps (such as the Nike EYBL in Augusta, the UAA Association in Atlanta, and the Adidas Gauntlet in Birmingham), giving the athletes in attendance a platform from which to get recruited. Mojave King, who is based in Australia, for example, is considered a potential NBA prospect and will be in attendance. Joshua Ojianwuna from Nigeria is another player who will be closely monitored by college coaches and NBA scouts as a likely high major caliber recruit in the class of 2021.

The NBA Academy initiative started in October 2016 and has sent a dozen athletes to Division 1 colleges such as Virginia, TCU, Davidson, UNLV and New Mexico. It saw its first athlete drafted this past April when Han Xu from China was picked 14th overall by the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

For the first time, the NBA will also invite two teams of international prospects from Europe who aren't part of the Academy initiative but will be playing high school basketball in the United States and may be on the NCAA track. Those players include Olivier-Maxence Prosper (Canada/Lake Forest Academy), Jeremy Sochan (Poland/La Lumiere), Ibrahima Bayu (Netherlands/Westtown Academy) and Dwayne Koroma (Germany/Bishop Walsh HS).

Source: Espn.com

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