Deandre Ayton

Deandre Edoneille Ayton Sr. (born July 23, 1998) is a Bahamian professional basketball player for the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

As a sophomore in 2014–15, Ayton led Balboa to a 17–14 record, averaging 21 points, 16 rebounds and 6.9 blocks per game.

He racked up double-doubles in 21 of 22 regular season games.

That summer, he averaged 16.5 points, 13.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks a game for Supreme Court AAU (California) on the Under Armour circuit.

Ayton in 2015–16, his junior year, transferred to Hillcrest Prep Academy in Phoenix, Arizona to play out his last two years.

In 2015, he was ranked by Scout as the top prospect in all of high school in their "Ultimate 100" list.

Ayton had narrowed his choices between three schools: Arizona, Kansas and Kentucky.

As a senior in 2016–17, Ayton led Hillcrest to a 33–6 record and national rankings across multiple outlets while averaging 26 points, 15 rebounds and 3.5 blocks.

He led Hillcrest to a Grind Session World Championship, earning Finals MVP and season MVP.

While representing the World Select team, Ayton played at the 2016 Nike Hoop Summit, chipping in with eight points to go along with seven rebounds.

On September 6, 2016, he committed to play for the Arizona Wildcats, and signed his letter of intent.

The wiretapped conversation reportedly occurred in 2016, when Ayton was still attending the Hillcrest Prep Academy.

A consensus five-star prospect in the Class of 2017 and a McDonald's All-American, he played one season of college basketball for the Arizona Wildcats, where he was named the Pac-12 Player of the Year.

During this high school year, he became teammates with another top-tier Class of 2017 player in 2018's #2 pick Marvin Bagley III.

Throughout his junior year, Ayton averaged 29.2 points, 16.7 rebounds, 3.8 blocks per game.

Ayton was considered one of the top prospects in the 2017 recruiting class by Scout.com, Rivals.com, and ESPN.

He was rated as a five-star recruit and the No. 3 overall recruit and No. 1 center in the 2017 high school class.

Ayton made his debut with the University of Arizona on November 10, 2017, recording 19 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocks in a 101–67 win over the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks.

On December 9, 2017, Ayton recorded what was, at the time, a season-high 29 points and 18 rebounds in an 88–82 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide.

On December 30, 2017, against the in-state rival Arizona State Sun Devils, he recorded 19 rebounds, which would be a season-high at the time.

Ayton was selected with the first overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns and was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team in 2019.

In 2021, he helped lead the Suns to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1993.

Ayton's father is Nigerian and his mother is of Jamaican and Bahamian heritage.

Ayton moved from the Bahamas to San Diego, California, to play high school basketball.

Ayton attended Balboa School in California and started on the varsity basketball team for two years.

On January 20, 2018, against Stanford, he blocked six shots, which tied him for most in Arizona freshman single game history.

He had also recorded 17 20-point games and 23 double-doubles through 34 games.

However, while Ayton had some great successes during his freshman season, there were also controversies mired during his last few months there.

On February 23, 2018, a reported FBI wiretap revealed Arizona's head coach, Sean Miller, allegedly talked with Christian Dawkins (a key figure involved in the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball corruption scandal) to discuss paying Ayton $100,000 to allow him to enter the university, with the monetary situation being dealt with directly to him.

While Miller would not be coaching the next game a day later against Oregon (assistant coach Lorenzo Romar would replace Miller that night), Ayton would still be allowed to play that day as the starting center.

In that game, Ayton would record 28 points, 18 rebounds, and 4 blocks in the overtime loss to Oregon.

Later on October 11, 2018, a government official revealed a now-former Adidas consultant named T.J. Gassnola paid a currently unknown amount of money to Ayton's family via Christian Dawkins in order to attend some Adidas sponsored programs.

On March 3, 2018, after their last regular season home game against California, where he'd record 26 points and a career-high 20 rebounds in a 66–54 win over California, head coach Sean Miller honored Ayton, as well as underclassmen Rawle Alkins and Allonzo Trier, with confirmations that they'd all be entering the 2018 NBA draft at the end of this season.

On March 9, Ayton would record a career-high 32 points with 14 rebounds in a 78–67 overtime win against UCLA.

He'd tie that career high for points the next day alongside grabbing 18 rebounds in the Pac-12 Championship game against USC, where the Wildcats won 75–61.

Ayton would be named the Pac-12 Tournament's Most Outstanding Player during the event.

At the end of the regular season, Ayton was named both the Pac-12's Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, as well as become a member of the All-Pac-12 first team (in terms of both regular voting and voting through the Associated Press) and be named the winner of the Karl Malone Award.

His 19 points was 7th most for a freshman in an Arizona debut.

Throughout his college career, he was used as a power forward instead of center; Dušan Ristić was Arizona's starting center instead.

On May 2, 2019, federal prosecutors played a wiretapped call from June 20, 2017 between Dawkins and former assistant coach Emanuel Richardson that Miller was paying Ayton $10,000 per month while enrolled at Arizona.