Entering the NBA at the age of 24, and contributing his first kill at the age of 25

In the NBA, older rookies are not uncommon, and many older players have been selected in this year's draft. But it is indeed rare to enter the NBA at the age of 24.

The Spurs' two-way contract player, Riley Minnix, was already 24 years old when he officially stayed in the NBA with a two-way contract. Born in September 2000, he is one month older than his teammate Wassell, who has played for four seasons.

Popovich, who has coached in the NBA for a long time, said when talking about coaching an older rookie like Minnis: "This is unusual, and this rarely happens."

Minnis spent the first four seasons in a nameless little college, and was not part of the NCAA Division I league. Although he has averaged 25.4 points and 13.6 rebounds in his senior year, he still has no chance of being selected.

Due to the epidemic, Minnix has obtained an additional one-year qualification, so in the "Big Five", he transferred to Moheide State University in the first-tier league. His combat power was not greatly affected. Here he can still average 20.8 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.3 steals and 1 block per game.

He led the team back to the Crazy Three Championship three years later, and he finally realized his dream of entering the championship. But they were eliminated in the first round, and Minnix scored 27 points in the last game of their college career and scored 5 of 10 three-pointers. The label on

Minix is very distinctive. The age of 24 means that he has no potential to tap, but his current combat power is very outstanding. His height of more than 2 meters and his weight of more than 100 kilograms will not suffer any physical loss in the forward position.

As a white player, Minnis cannot run fast and jump high, but his fierce fighting makes his style of play not soft at all. Of course, the most important reason why he can stay in the NBA in the end is that he has excellent outside shooting.

He brought his accuracy in the college field to the Summer League. In the summer league last year, he averaged 9 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game for the Spurs, shooting 44.8% from the field, 50% from three-pointers and 100% from free throws.

This allowed him to stay in the preseason on the lineup. In the three preseason games that represented the Spurs, Minnis averaged 7.8 minutes per game and scored 7.7 points. This ended up getting him a two-way contract.

Last season, Minnis played only one game in the NBA. He spent the rest of his time in the Development League, and he has been able to play at this level with ease, averaging 19.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1 steal and 1.1 blocks, shooting percentage of 52.8% and 3-point shooting percentage of 42%.

After the end of the two-way contract, the Spurs offered a qualification offer for the two-way contract for Minnis, which means that if other teams want to sign Minnis, the Spurs can choose to match, which means that the Spurs still want to keep him. And his goal today greatly increased his chances of staying in the team. The Summer League between the Spurs and Jazz played all the way to overtime. In the last moment, the Jazz's lottery pick Cody Williams missed two free throws and missed the opportunity, giving the Spurs a chance to win.

serve on the sideline, the Spurs' Harper and another point didn't run out, and the ball was given the third choice, and the Minnis. With less than two seconds left, Minnix turned back and tilted his body to shoot the ball out. The basketball was hollowed into the net, killing the game with one goal.

My game started the live broadcast in the last round and saw Minnix's final kill. At that time, a sentence flashed through my mind: "The most glorious moment in my basketball career is now."

Last season, there were only two news about Minnis, one was that he was signed by the Spurs, and the other was that he underwent shoulder surgery in January and was reimbursed for the season. Fortunately, he injured his left shoulder instead of the shooting shoulder, so this injury didn't have much impact on his shooting.

He is about to be 25 years old, and has only played one NBA game and then has a serious shoulder injury. Fortunately, the Spurs are willing to give him full patience and believe in his shooting ability. After rushing in both directions, both sides waited for this final kill.

If only talented young people in the NBA can show off their talents, it would be too monotonous. It is precisely because of countless stories of low-level players like Minnix climbing upwards that this league becomes so intense and full.