Ochai Agbaji’s next move after Nets stint? Sharing his NBA knowledge with kids
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Ochai Agbaji hosted his second annual youth skills camp at Oak Park High School.
- Agbaji wore a polo representing The Young Agbaji Foundation at the camp.
- Agbaji has been traded three times and played for three NBA teams since 2022.
Former Kansas Jayhawks All-America men’s basketball Ochai Agbaji has worn many jerseys since entering the NBA in 2022.
Drafted 14th overall, he has been traded three times and has suited up for three teams in his four-year pro career.
But this NBA offseason, Agbaji, 26, decided to swap his basketball jersey for a polo representing his own team, The Young Agbaji Foundation. He held his second annual youth basketball skills camp at his alma mater, Oak Park High School, on Saturday.
The camp comes during an uncertain time in Agbaji’s career. At the end of the 2025-26 season, the Brooklyn Nets declined to tender his $8.8 million qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career.
He’s free to field offers from all 30 NBA franchises this offseason. That’s the good news. But Agbaji has struggled to find a lasting home in the NBA since being drafted as a lottery pick four years ago.
His 2024-25 season with the Toronto Raptors is only season he has spent entirely with one team. At one point, Agbaji seemed to have established himself as a mainstay in the Raptors’ rotation, starting 45 of the 64 games in 2024-25 while averaging a career-high 10.4 points and shooting 49.8% from the field (39% on 3-pointers).
A disappointing start to the 2025-26 season led Toronto to trade Agbaji to the Brooklyn Nets at the trade deadline. He averaged 6.7 points and 2.3 rebounds in his final 20 games of the year with the Nets.
As the days of NBA free agency tick by, Agbaji remains unsigned. But as the two-hour camp commenced on Saturday, he didn’t appear so focused on which team suits him best or working to improve his three-point shot.
He was simply sharing a little bit of the joy that he gains from working with those kids on the court. He roamed amongst the various mini baskets in the gym as both a coach and player, jumping into a keep-away game to playfully swipe at the ball.
Those among the group of pre-teens were learning to protect the ball with their off-hand. Then Agbaji moved to a younger age group that was going through the proper steps of throwing a chest pass.
“Chest pass,” Agbaji repeated aloud to a group of young kids lined up on the opposite side of the baseline. As he spoke, he flicked his wrists, mimicking the motion of the pass.
After his brief lesson, Agbaji watched a young boy, who was barely bigger than the basketball he was holding, use all of his strength to lob a pass just out of reach of his partner. That drew a smile from the former KU star as he jogged to retrieve the rolling ball.
In the corner of Oak Park’s gym is a banner that reads “future Oakies,” a designation for incoming Oak Park students that applied to Agbaji in the not-too-distant past. Now he’s teaching basketball to the next generation of kids on the same court where he learned the game.
“It’s a surreal moment and a surreal feeling at the same time,” Agbaji said. “Just to come back and see these kids in the same gym that I grew up in and just see them having fun with the sport that I love and the sport that we all love.
“I walk out of here, and all these kids have a smile on their face, and they’re saying that they had a great time, that’s fulfilling for me. Every single moment, every single high five, every single big interaction and small interaction that I’m making is special to me.”
