What's Devonté Graham been up to since graduating? Workouts and more workouts
Devonte’ Graham’s fingerprint doesn’t work to get into “the mansion” — KU's McCarthy Hall — anymore, and that was a humbling moment for the recently-graduated Jayhawk.
Returning to Lawrence for the 10th-annual Rock Chalk Roundball Classic on Thursday night, Graham took a break from his hectic NBA workout schedule to participate in the annual charity event.
“Just being here, you get to do a lot of stuff with the fans, just interacting with them," Graham said on Thursday night at Free State High School. "Me personally, I’m a people person, I love the kids. Just trying to put a smile on their face, whatever we’re doing. We just get the opportunity and we’re in the situation that people idolize us, and we’ve just got to give back.”
Since graduating from Kansas in May, Graham has attended at least 12 workouts with NBA teams across the nation, racking up “plenty of skymiles.”
Having recently fell completely off some draft boards, Graham has had his work cut out for him to impress NBA front offices before the NBA Draft on June 21. His 17.3 points and 7.2 assists per-game averages should speak for itself, but seniors are often not as highly regarded come draft time.
Former Kansas center Jeff Withey thinks Graham stands a good chance heading into the draft and forging a career in the NBA.
“He’s a leader on the floor, he’s going to do well,” Withey said. “If any team sits down and talks to him, they’ll know what he’s about. I think he’ll have a long career in the NBA — he might not get drafted all that high, but he might, you never know, the draft is crazy.”
At Thursday night’s charity game, Graham scored eight points, going 3 for 10 from the field in his team's 128-105 victory. While that stat may not sound promising, it’s worth remembering Graham still has further workouts before the draft next week and didn’t want to exert himself too hard.
As for the man himself, he’s been pleased with how he’s performed at workouts.
“I’ve been killing it,” Graham said. “To be honest, I’ve been doing really well in these workouts the past couple of weeks."
Having just finished working out with the Memphis Grizzlies before returning to Lawrence, Graham will attend two further workouts —with the Dallas Mavericks and the Oklahoma City Thunder — before returning to home to Raleigh, N.C., for the draft.
This story was originally published June 14, 2018 at 11:09 PM with the headline "What's Devonté Graham been up to since graduating? Workouts and more workouts."