Former Kansas Jayhawk Ochai Agbaji scores 16 points in his NBA summer-league debut
Former University of Kansas guard Ochai Agbaji hit four three pointers and scored 16 points in his pro basketball debut for the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday afternoon.
Agbaji, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard taken No. 14 overall by the Cavs in the 2022 NBA Draft, hit 5 of 11 shots (4 of 9 from three) in Cleveland’s 99-90 victory over San Antonio in Cox Pavilion on UNLV’s campus in Las Vegas in a summer-league game.
Agbaji went 2 of 2 from the free-throw line. He also grabbed three rebounds with two assists and one turnover in 33 minutes.
“It was all right,” Agbaji, a graduate of KU and Oak Park High School, said of his debut in a postgame interview on ESPN. “There’s a lot of shots I left out there, a lot of missed opportunities. Overall it was good. I knew there was a lot of talent on the floor, (and) on the defensive end it would be a challenge guarding those guys, being locked in on that and keying in on what we had to do defensively.”
RJ Nembhard scored 20 points and Amar Sylla 19 for the Cavs, off to a 1-0 start in summer league. Josh Primo and Blake Wesley had 20 points apiece for the Spurs (0-1).
Agbaji, a first-team All-American, Big 12 player of the year and Final Four most outstanding player, told an ESPN reporter before the game he felt he had something to prove in summer league.
“That I belong,” Agbaji said, asked about his pregame comments after his productive, winning NBA debut. “That I belong in this league, that I have a place in this league and can make an impact.”
