Former BYU Basketball star Elijah Bryant played extremely well in his NBA debut with the Milwaukee Bucks.
When BYU Basketball fans think of the greatest players over the past decade, players like Jimmer Fredette, Kyle Collinsworth, Tyler and TJ Haws, and Yoeli Childs to name a few come to mind. Behind those players is a second tier with players including Elijah Bryant, Eric Mika, Nate Austin, Charles Abouo, and Zac Seljaas.
But out of that entire list, only one of them suited up in an NBA jersey this season. Elijah Bryant. In fact, he just got signed by the Milwaukee Bucks on a 3-year deal and was bought out of the Israeli Club Maccabi Tel Aviv for $500,000. Granted, half a million dollars in the NBA isn’t anything crazy, but it does send a message that Bryant was the guy they wanted and they were willing to pay a price for him.
In his first game on Monday night, Bryant went off for 16 points, six rebounds, three assists and a block. His highlights are below:
NBA debut for @Elijah_Bryant3:
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) May 17, 2021
16 PTS | 6 REB | 3 AST | 1 BLK pic.twitter.com/YRAIHgjHjf
This is great news for Elijah Bryant and I hope that he finds himself a long and successful career with the Bucks or any other NBA team that he finds himself playing for. However, this does leave one big question though, how and why?
Again, this isn’t’ a knock against Bryant, but we’ve all seen those “You get $10, create a team” and then there is a list of $5 players, $4 players, $3 and so on. While at BYU, Bryant would have been a $3, maybe $4 kind of player with Jimmer, Collinsworth and Childs being the clear best $5 options. Yet it is Bryant who is scoring 16 points in the season finale while everyone else is playing overseas, or not at all. Not anything against playing overseas, but it isn’t the NBA.
And this isn’t just basketball. Look at Michael Davis with the Los Angeles Chargers. Davis didn’t even start his senior year at BYU, yet he is now the lockdown corner in the NFL. This is the beauty of sports. A player may not have the success that they are looking for in high school or college. But with the right system and right need they may find even more success at the next level.
To all you high school athletes out there not finding the success you are looking for, keeping fighting. You may just need the right fit, and you need to be ready when that opportunity arrives.