No. 7 – Indiana Mad Ants | |
---|---|
Position | Shooting guard |
League | NBA G League |
Personal information | |
Born | Dunedin, New Zealand | 11 June 2002
Nationality | New Zealand / American |
Listed height | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) |
Listed weight | 195 lb (88 kg) |
Career information | |
High school | Brisbane State (Brisbane, Queensland) |
NBA draft | 2023: 2nd round, 47th overall pick |
Selected by the Los Angeles Lakers | |
Playing career | 2018–present |
Career history | |
2018 | Brisbane Capitals |
2019 | BA Centre of Excellence |
2020–2021 | Cairns Taipans |
2021–2022 | Adelaide 36ers |
2022 | Southland Sharks |
2022–2023 | NBA G League Ignite |
2023–present | Indiana Mad Ants |
Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Stats at NBA.com | |
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com | |
Mojave King (/məˈhɑːvi/ mə-HAH-vee;[1] born 11 June 2002) is a New Zealand-American professional basketball player for the Indiana Mad Ants of the NBA G League. He began his career in the Australian National Basketball League (NBL) in 2020 where he played a season for the Cairns Taipans and Adelaide 36ers. After a season with the NBA G League Ignite, he was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 47th overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft.
King was born in Dunedin, New Zealand.[2] He was named after the Mojave Desert in the southwestern United States.[3]
In 2007, at the age of four, King moved with his family to Mackay, Queensland, when his father accepted a role to coach the Mackay Meteors in Australia's semi-professional Queensland Basketball League (QBL).[4] The family settled in Brisbane four years later when King's father accepted a position to coach the Brisbane Spartans in the South East Australian Basketball League.[5] There he attended Brisbane State High School.[5]
In 2018, King played one game in the QBL for the Brisbane Capitals.[6]
In 2019, King joined the NBA Global Academy, a training centre at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. In association with the academy, he played for the BA Centre of Excellence in the NBL1, an Australian semi-professional league.[5] Later that year, King represented Queensland South at the Australian Under-18 Championships, where he led the competition in scoring with 26.6 points per game.[5] At the NBA Academy Games in Atlanta, Georgia in July 2019, he averaged a tournament-high 19.2 points per game.[3]
On 12 March 2020, at the age of 17, King signed with the Cairns Taipans of the National Basketball League (NBL) as a part of the league's Next Stars program to develop NBA draft prospects.[7][8] By joining the NBL, he turned down offers from several NCAA Division I programs, including Arizona, Baylor, Oregon and Virginia.[9] During the 2020–21 season, King averaged 6.2 points and 2.4 rebounds.[10]
On 14 July 2021, King was transferred to the Adelaide 36ers for the final year of his Next Stars contract.[11]
On 19 April 2022, King signed with the Southland Sharks for the 2022 New Zealand NBL season.[12]
On 7 September 2022, King signed a contract with the NBA G League Ignite.[13] He was named to the G League's inaugural Next Up Game for the 2022–23 season.[14]
King was selected with the 47th overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. His draft rights were then immediately traded to the Indiana Pacers.[15] He became just the third New Zealand-born player to be picked in the NBA draft, following Sean Marks and Steven Adams.[16] He subsequently played for the Pacers in the 2023 NBA Summer League.[17] In October 2023, he joined the Indiana Mad Ants, the Pacers' NBA G League affiliate.[18]
King is the son of Leonard and Tracey King (née Paul).[2] His father is from the United States and played in New Zealand and coached in Australia.[2][3][19] His mother is a New Zealand native and played NCAA basketball for Duquesne.[20] His older sister, Tylah, played for Pacific in the NCAA.[3] King's maternal grandfather, John Paul, coached basketball in Otago for over 50 years and is one of the region's most prominent basketball figures.[2]
King is a dual citizen of New Zealand and the United States.[21] As of 2019, he did not hold an Australian passport.[21] He has signalled his intentions to represent the Australian national team.[21][20]