MANHATTAN, Kan. ~ Five former members of the Kansas State men’s basketball team will participate in the NBA Summer League, which begins Monday, July 3 with the California Classic and Salt Lake City Summer Leagues and continues with the NBA 2K24 Summer League . League in Las Vegas from Friday July 7 to Monday July 17 this year. Kansas State will have a strong performance in this year’s tournament. Keyontae Johnson (Oklahoma City Thunder) and Markquis Nowell (Toronto Raptors) are two recent players who will participate in the summer league alongside Barry Brown Jr. (Phoenix Suns), Mark Smith (Denver Nuggets) and Xavier Sneed (Charlotte Hornets ) . Johnson and Nowell recently finished their careers at Kansas State University and may soon be competing in their first professional matches. Meanwhile, Brown and Smith return to the team after spending outstanding seasons playing professionally overseas. After signing a 2-way deal, Sneed spent the entire 2022-23 campaign on the Hornets roster.
Each game will be broadcast either on one of the ESPN networks (ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU) or on NBA TV. The Thunder made Johnson the first Wildcat player to be selected in the NBA draft since 2017 when they made the second-round selection on June 22. Johnson attended the University of Kentucky. The Raptors and Nowell reached an agreement on a 2-way deal later that night. After enjoying a successful season in Australia and France in the 2022-23 NBA season, Brown secured a coveted position with the Suns for their summer league club. During that season, Brown helped lead both of his teams to league championships. He shot 49.1% from the field and averaged 12.6 points, 2.1 assists and 1.5 rebounds in 11 games for the Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92. In those games he played alongside two players selected in the NBA lottery, including the first overall pick, Victor Wembanyama.
Smith averaged 16.5 points per game and 6.9 rebounds per game for BG Goettingen, which competes in the Basketball Bundesliga League (BBL), which is considered the highest level of competition in Germany. Sneed currently has a deal with Charlotte that allows him to play for both the Hornets and G-League affiliate Greensboro Swarm. In the 2022-23 season, Sneed was called up to play for the Hornets and played in four games during that season.
