Should BYU basketball consider NBA dropout James Nnaji of Baylor, or has Kevin Young learned his lesson from last season’s fiasco?
James Nnaji was selected in the second round of the 2023 NBA Draft. After being the first player picked off the board in the second round, he never played on an NBA court and finally returned to college basketball, which has become customary among players who reach a plateau in the professional ranks.
Nnaji joined the Baylor Bears about the same time that BYU basketball recruited Abdullah Ahmed, a G-League washout from the Westchester Knicks. Neither player stood out in collegiate basketball, despite their experience playing professionally.
By the time Ahmed joined the transfer portal, BYU supporters were eager to pack his bags and drive him to Salt Lake City International Airport themselves. Nnaji’s time in Waco had a similar tone, as the former pro only scored 26 points in 18 games while pulling Baylor down even lower than they had been prior to his advent.
However, seeing Nnaji in the portal motivates me. He calls to me. I feel like Tobias Funke in Arrested Development, proposing an open relationship to his wife and being told, “No, it never works. ” I mean, these folks somehow deceive themselves into believing that it might, but it might work for us!
Nnaji’s year in the Big 12 Conference was unappealing. There was nothing about the 7-footer that instilled faith in his potential as a collegiate athlete, and there is excellent reason why his name has dropped to the bottom of 247 Sports’ transfer list by Florida’s Olivier Rioux: The Baylor experiment was a complete fiasco.
However, if Kevin Young’s goal is to prepare young players for an NBA career, why not take a gamble on Nnaji’s potential and develop him as a reserve? With Khadim Mboup as the only center on BYU’s roster, perhaps the two might form the bottom two-thirds of a deadly three-headed beast.
Nonetheless, it is doubtful that any college program will be interested in what Nnaji is offering. This NBA dropout is expected to spend his final years playing abroad.
