{"id":775656,"date":"2026-07-21T10:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T10:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/775656\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T10:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T10:27:09","slug":"michigan-basketball-stars-shine-in-nba-summer-league-as-lendeborg-wins-another-championship-mvp-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/775656\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan basketball stars shine in NBA summer league as Lendeborg wins another championship, MVP award"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANN ARBOR, Mich. \u2013 The Michigan Wolverines<\/a>\u2019 growing reputation as an NBA pipeline was on full display during the 2026 NBA Summer League, with eight former players taking the court and several making immediate impressions.<\/p>\n

The biggest spotlight belonged to Golden State Warriors forward Yaxel Lendeborg<\/a>, who capped his first professional showcase by leading the Bay to the Summer League championship and earning Most Valuable Player honors.<\/p>\n

Lendeborg, the No. 11 overall pick, delivered in the title game, scoring 21 points and grabbing 10 rebounds as Golden State rallied for a 94-90 victory over Cam Boozer and his Memphis Grizzlies.<\/p>\n

The national champion scored seven of the Warriors\u2019 final 10 points to secure the championship and was also named Championship Game MVP.<\/p>\n

Throughout the Summer League, Lendeborg averaged 14.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 48.4% from the field and 45.9% from three-point range.<\/p>\n

The performance continued Lendeborg\u2019s standout run, as he arrived in the NBA after earning consensus All-American honors, Big Ten Player of the Year recognition, and a national championship at Michigan.<\/p>\n

Lendeborg joined elite company as he became the second player in NCAA and NBA history to win the summer league title and the college natty in the same year, joining Miami Heat guard Davion Mitchell, who achieved such success back in 2021 with the Baylor Bears and the Sacramento Kings.<\/p>\n

Lottery picks make strong debuts<\/p>\n

Two other Michigan players selected in the 2026 lottery also impressed in their professional debuts.<\/p>\n

Morez Johnson Jr.<\/a> made an immediate impact in the frontcourt for the Dallas Mavericks, averaging 18.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.0 blocks and 2.5 steals while shooting 64% from the field. <\/p>\n

Dallas shut him down after two games.<\/p>\n

Aday Mara<\/a> showcased his versatility with the Oklahoma City Thunder, averaging 9.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.8 blocks per game while shooting 56.3% from the field. Oklahoma City shut him down after five games.<\/p>\n

Former first-round pick Kobe Bufkin<\/a> continued to show his scoring ability with the New Orleans Pelicans, averaging 21.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists in three games before being shut down.<\/p>\n

Veterans add to Michigan\u2019s summer showing<\/p>\n

Michigan\u2019s veteran NBA prospects also contributed throughout the summer.<\/p>\n

Danny Wolf<\/a> averaged 11.8 points and 5.8 rebounds for the Brooklyn Nets, while Nimari Burnett<\/a> posted 10.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game for the Toronto Raptors.<\/p>\n

Vladislav Goldin<\/a> provided a strong interior presence for the Miami Heat, averaging 8.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game.<\/p>\n

Roddy Gayle Jr.<\/a> made the most of his opportunities with the Detroit Pistons<\/a>, shooting 61.5% from the field and 66.7% from 3-point range while contributing 5.5 points per game.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANN ARBOR, Mich. \u2013 The Michigan Wolverines\u2019 growing reputation as an NBA pipeline was on full display during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[250094,32589,4576,98728,1777,220890,355,98979,330797,99,106203,98985],"class_list":["post-775656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-aday-mara","tag-danny-wolf","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-kobe-bufkin","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-morez-johnson-jr","tag-nba","tag-nimari-burnett","tag-roddy-gayle-jr","tag-sports","tag-vladislav-goldin","tag-yaxel-lendeborg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775656","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=775656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}