{"id":813527,"date":"2026-07-21T03:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T03:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/813527\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T03:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T03:16:14","slug":"former-top-five-pick-in-2015-eyes-nba-comeback-amid-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/813527\/","title":{"rendered":"Former top-five pick in 2015 eyes NBA comeback amid free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A former No. 5 overall pick by the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/orlando-magic\/19\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Orlando Magic;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Orlando Magic&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Orlando Magic<\/a> in the 2015 NBA Draft, <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/players\/5465\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Mario Hezonja;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Mario Hezonja&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mario Hezonja<\/a> seems intent on making an NBA comeback. <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/chemadelucas\/status\/2079287357501579628\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:According to;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;According to&quot;}\" class=\"link \">According to<\/a> author and insider Chema de Lucas, Hezonja informed Real Madrid that he will be leaving the club for the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>However, no NBA team has officially signed the Croatian forward. In five NBA seasons between the Magic, <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/teams\/new-york\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Knicks;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Knicks&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Knicks<\/a> and <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/teams\/portland\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Trail Blazers;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Trail Blazers&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trail Blazers<\/a>, Hezonja <a href=\"https:\/\/www.proballers.com\/basketball\/player\/18072\/mario-hezonja#google_vignette\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:averaged;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;averaged&quot;}\" class=\"link \">averaged<\/a> 6.9 points, 3.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 0.7 steals in 330 games, never living up to the hype of a top-five selection. During the 2025-26 season with Real Madrid, Hezonja averaged 17.5 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 28 games. Hezonja is still just 31 years old.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Rookie Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/therookiewire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/rookie\/2026\/07\/20\/former-top-five-pick-in-2015-eyes-nba-comeback\/90990337007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Former top-five pick in 2015 eyes NBA comeback amid free agency;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Former top-five pick in 2015 eyes NBA comeback amid free agency&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Former top-five pick in 2015 eyes NBA comeback amid free agency<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former No. 5 overall pick by the Orlando Magic in the 2015 NBA Draft, Mario Hezonja seems&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[388403,64,63,12845,388402,590,12985,22455,85,7642],"class_list":["post-813527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-2015-nba-draft","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-knicks","tag-mario-hezonja","tag-nba","tag-orlando-magic","tag-real-madrid","tag-sports","tag-trail-blazers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}