Tennessee basketball added three more names over the last two days to the list of players drafted into the NBA.
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The 2026 NBA Draft took place June 23-24, with three members of Rick Barnes\u2019 2025-26 Elite Eight team making the jump to professional basketball.
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Barnes has now helped 13 Vols reach the NBA since 2019, with this 2026 class being the second time Barnes has had a trio of players drafted into the NBA, and the first time this happened being in 2019 with Grant Williams, Admiral Schofield and Jordan Bone.
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Let\u2019s take a look at the three draft selections from Tuesday and Wednesday night.
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Nate Ament: First round, pick 13 \u2014 Milwaukee Bucks<\/p>\n
The true freshman from Manassas, Virginia, is the highest Vol to be drafted since 2002, when Marcus Haslip was also selected 13th overall.
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Ament stands as the ninth top-15 pick and is Tennessee\u2019s sixth one-and-done to be drafted into the NBA, the fifth under Barnes.
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While the selection went to the Miami Heat, Ament will be joining the Bucks as one of the pieces in the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade.
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\u201cI really wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s much extra pressure,\u201d Ament said. \u201cObviously, we\u2019re stepping in. Luckily, I\u2019m not going at it alone. I have got another top-10 draft pick, Brayden Burries. He\u2019s a tremendous player, and I\u2019m excited to get to learn with him.\u201d
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Ament has the frame and potential to make an impact on a young Bucks team in search of a new identity after dealing away their former champion, Antetokounmpo.
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\u201cYeah, I\u2019m just super excited,\u201d Ament said. \u201cAgain, as I said, I\u2019m super grateful for the opportunity. Being able to make my family proud and share that moment with them means the world to me. So super excited and ready to get to work.\u201d
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Ja\u2019Kobi Gillespie: Second round, pick 42 \u2014 San Antonio Spurs<\/p>\n
The second player to hear his name called was the Greenville, Tennessee, native Ja\u2019Kobi Gillespie, who was taken by the league runner-up San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a workout with them; it went really well,\u201d Gillespie said. \u201cThey told me they really liked me and were considering drafting me, so for them to take a chance on me is just a great feeling; that\u2019s where I wanted to be, honestly.\u201d
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Gillespie had an illustrious career, during which he spent time at three different schools, including Belmont, Maryland, and Tennessee. Out of his four seasons, Gillespie saved his best for last, averaging 18.4 points per game on 41% shooting.
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He also grew into his role as a playmaker, averaging a career high of 5.4 assists his senior year.<\/p>\n
Felix Okpara: Second round, pick 46 \u2014 Washington Wizards<\/p>\n
Center Felix Oxpara was the third and final Vol to have their name selected from the 2026 NBA Draft pool. He also became the 13th Vol to be selected from Barnes\u2019 tenure.
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Shortly after being drafted, Okpara was later dealt to the Washington Wizards through a trade.
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Okpara is the second international player to ever be drafted out of Tennessee. Okpara is a native of Lagos, Nigeria.
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Okpara spent his final two collegiate seasons with the Vols after transferring in from Ohio State, where he displayed his impressive rim protection. He finished his Vols career averaging 7.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks.
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\u201cI\u2019m just really excited, a dream come true for sure,\u201d Okpara said. \u201cSeeing your name get called, all the hard work you put in, I feel like it\u2019s the next step in my journey, and I\u2019m excited to go through with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennessee basketball added three more names over the last two days to the list of players drafted into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-726416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}