Tara Murray
Former Maribyrnong Sports Academy star Johnny Furphy has realised his NBA dream.
A late bloomer in this draft, Furphy was in the room on night one of the draft on Thursday.
His name wasn’t called out in the first 30 picks, so it was a nervous wait for him ahead of the rest of the draft the following days.
Furphy didn’t have to wait long, with the San Antonio Spurs calling out his name at pick 35.
He was traded to the Indiana Pacers.
Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan said they were excited to bring Furphy into the program.
“I feel like he is a guy who’s got a lot of room to grow both his body physically and his game,” he said.
“He’s very young in age. We liked a lot of things about him and felt like it aligned with who we are as an organisation, how we play and obviously comes from a great program at Kanvas.
“[We’re] excited about where he could get to.”
In his one season with Kansas, Furphy worked his way into the starting line up, averaging nine points, 4.9 rebounds and one assist per game.
He was voted into the Big 12 freshman’s all star team.
Furphy joined Kansas after being a late bloomer having been small growing up.
He made his first Victorian state team in 2022 in the under-20s, before earning a scholarship at Centre of Excellence at the AIS.
Before he headed to the AIS, he attended the Maribyrnong Sports Academy having long dreamed of attending the college. He finished year 12 at the academy while he was at the AIS.
He was this year named in the Australian Boomers squad for the Paris Olympics, but was cut when the squad was reduced.
