{"id":148177,"date":"2026-02-28T05:34:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T05:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/148177\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T05:34:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T05:34:32","slug":"former-bison-grant-nelson-makes-nba-debut-scores-3-points-inforum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/148177\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Bison Grant Nelson makes NBA debut, scores 3 points – InForum"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 North Dakota native and former North Dakota State star Grant Nelson made his NBA debut at TD Garden on Friday, Feb. 27, scoring his first basket on a dunk for the Brooklyn Nets.<\/p>\n

Nelson entered the game with 9:50 left in the fourth quarter. <\/p>\n

Nelson, a Devils Lake (N.D.) High School graduate who played for the Bison from 2020 to 2023 before transferring to Alabama for his final two college seasons.<\/p>\n

He finished with 3 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks in 10 minutes Friday.<\/p>\n

His two-handed dunk on a pass from Ochai Agbaji with 6:36 remaining in the game was Nelson’s first NBA points.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn (15-44) lost 148-111 to the Celtics, in second place in the Eastern Conference at 39-20.<\/p>\n

“It’s really just a dream come true,” Nelson said on a YES Network interview before the game when asked what it’s like to be on an NBA roster. “I’m just going to do what I can, continue to keep working and hopefully do whatever I can to help this team win some games.”<\/p>\n

Nelson signed a 10-day contract with the Nets, a move announced earlier<\/a><\/p>\n

Friday. He’d spent the season with Brooklyn’s G-League affiliate in Long Island before the call-up.<\/p>\n

He is the first former Bison to play in an NBA regular season game and was the first former NDSU player to claim a spot on an active NBA roster in-season.<\/p>\n

The Nets, one of the NBA’s worst teams, were within 6 points midway through the third quarter at 82-76, but the Celtics outscored Brooklyn 66-35 the rest of the way.<\/p>\n

“Everybody since the summer, these guys have been great,” Nelson told YES. “They took me in before the summer league and after that a little bit so I’m just excited to play with all of them and just get on an NBA court.”<\/p>\n

Brooklyn’s next game is Sunday at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n

\"NBA:<\/p>\n

Boston Celtics forward Dalano Banton (45) shoots the ball over Brooklyn Nets guard Grant Nelson (16) during the second half Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, at TD Garden in Boston. Nelson, a former North Dakota State standout from Devils Lake, N.D., made his NBA debut against the Celtics.<\/p>\n

Bob DeChiara \/ IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Mike<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Mike McFeely is a columnist for The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. He began working for The Forum in the 1980s while he was a student studying journalism at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He’s been with The Forum full time since 1990, minus a six-year hiatus when he hosted a local radio talk-show.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 North Dakota native and former North Dakota State star Grant Nelson made his NBA debut at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,7070,62130,62129,62131,9,24,63,62132],"class_list":{"0":"post-148177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-grant-nelson","12":"tag-grant-nelson-debut","13":"tag-grant-nelson-roll-tide","14":"tag-ndsu-basketball","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-who-is-grant-nelson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}