Former Tennessee basketball players Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Zakai Zeigler and Igor Milicic Jr. are all on the San Antonio Spurs Summer League roster for play in the California Classic later this week.
The Spurs face the Miami Heat on Friday in a 8 p.n. Eastern Time start at the Chase Center in San Francisco. They face the host Warriors on Sunday in a 7 p.m. ET start and then the Lakers on Monday in a 7:30 p.m. ET game.
The Milwaukee Bucks are also in the California Classic, playing in Sacramento on Saturday (3 p.m. ET), Sunday (3 p.m ET) and Monday (10 p.m. ET).
Three Vols selected in last week’s NBA Draft
The Bucks took Tennessee’s Nate Ament at No. 13 overall in the first round of last week’s NBA Draft. The Spurs selected Gillespie in the second round, with the 42nd overall pick. Felix Okpara was also a second-round pick, going to the Washington Wizards at No. 46 overall.
The Salt Lake City Summer League — the Grizzlies, Thunder, Hawks and host Jazz are playing in Utah — will be played July 4-7 and the 2026 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas will be July 9-19.
Gillespie averaged 18.4 points, 5.4 assists and 2.8 rebounds in 34.8 minutes per game while starting all 37 games in his one and only season at Tennessee. The Greeneville, Tenn., native started his career with two seasons at Belmont, then transferred to Maryland before his homecoming with the Vols as a senior last season.
He replaced Zeigler at point guard for the Vols after Zeigler’s memorable four-year run at Tennessee, which included 11.3 points, 5.4 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game in 138 career games.
Zeigler played his first season of professional basketball with Nanterre 92, a Paris-based team that plays in the Pro A league in France. He spent last summer with the Philadelphia 76ers Summer League team after going undrafted.
Nate Ament is Tennessee’s highest NBA Draft pick since 2002
Milicic finished his college career at Tennessee after one season at Virginia and two at Charlotte. In 37 games with the Vols he averaged 9.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 25.4 minutes per game.
Ament’s selection at No. 13 overall made him the highest NBA Draft pick of the Rick Barnes era — 13 Vols who played for Barnes have been drafted, including five first-rounders — and the highest drafted Tennessee player since Marcus Haislip also went at No. 13 overall to the Bucks in 2002.
Ament averaged 16.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 35 games during his lone season with the Vols. He started in all 35 games he played and averaged 29.7 minutes per game while shooting 39.9% from the field and 33.3% from the 3-point line.
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