Ace Bailey of McEachern on Wednesday became the 10th former Georgia high school basketball player taken among the first 10 selections in the NBA draft in 10 years, a record that only Florida can match.
The Utah Jazz took Bailey, the 2024 AJC all-classification player of the year, with the No. 5 pick in draft in New York.
At least one former Georgia high school player has been taken in the top 10 each year this decade. No other state can claim that.
Other top-10 picks since 2020 are Newton’s Stephon Castle (2024), Kell’s Scoot Henderson (2023), Sandy Creek’s Jabari Smith (2022), Liberty County’s Davion Mitchell (2021) and Holy Spirit’s Anthony Edwards and McEachern’s Isaac Okoro (2020).
Going before them were Pace Academy’s Wendell Carter and Pebblebrook’s Collin Sexton (2018) and Wheeler’s Jaylen Brown (2016).
“It’s a testament to Georgia basketball and high school basketball but also to the AAU programs we’ve got around here, the rec leagues, all these things enhancing our state and putting these athletes on a bigger platform,” said Tremayne Anchrum, Bailey’s high school coach at McEachern, a Cobb County school.
Anchrum also coached Brown in AAU ball and worked with Henderson and Sexton at points during their younger days.
Bailey, a 6-foot-9 forward, fits right in with them. As a high school senior, he averaged 32.9 points, 15.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 2.5 blocked shots for a 26-6 team that was the Georgia Class 7A runner-up and finished No. 12 in MaxPreps’ national rankings. He was the consensus No. 2 prospect nationally.
In one season at Rutgers, Bailey averaged 17.6 points and 7.2 rebounds and made 47 of 136 3-point attempts.
“Ace came my first year (in 2021). When I got him, you could see the pro potential, but he was a 15-year-old kid,” Anchrum said. “But you could see the athleticism, the IQ, the work ethic early. You could see he was going to be really good. He was projected to do that (become a top-10 pick) since his junior season.”
Florida has the most top-10 picks since 2016 with 12, but four of those grew up in other states or countries and finished up at IMG Academy or Montverde Academy, prep schools built for elite high school players. One of those is Cooper Flagg, this year’s No. 1 overall pick to the Dallas Mavericks. Flagg, originally from Maine, played his final three seasons at Montverde.
Nine of Georgia’s 10 are Georgia natives. The only one who is not is Bailey, who moved to Georgia from Chattanooga in 2021 and played his final three high school seasons at McEachern. Georgia’ 10 does not include three top-10 picks who played for Overtime Elite, an Atlanta prep school and professional league.
California has nine top-10 picks since 2016. Texas has six.
Georgia’s 10 coincidentally equals the number of former Georgia high school football players taken in the top 10 of the NFL draft since 2016. The NBA draft is far more international, though. Twenty-eight of the 100 top-10 picks since 2016, and four Wednesday night, grew up outside the United States. That means nearly one in seven of the American players drafted in the top 10 since 2016 are from Georgia.
“These guys are homegrown talent,” Anchrum said. “Most of them were only in college for a short time. Ace was at Rutgers for six months. He was in the high system here for 36 months. ... Georgia is an incubator for this stuff. I’m proud of these kids, those I know, those I don’t know, and their coaches and parents, everybody.”
Top-10 NBA draft picks from Georgia since 2016
2025
No. 5 Ace Bailey, McEachern (Jazz)
2024
No. 4 Stephon Castle, Newton (Spurs)
2023
No. 3 Scoot Henderson, Kell (Trail Blazers)
2022
No. 3 Jabari Smith Jr., Sandy Creek (Rockets)
2021
No. 9 Davion Mitchell, Liberty County (Kings)
2020
No. 1 Anthony Edwards, Holy Spirit Prep (Timberwolves)
No. 5 Isaac Okoro, McEachern (Cavaliers)
2019
None
2018
No. 7 Wendell Carter Jr., Pace Academy (Bulls)
No. 8 Collin Sexton, Pebblebrook (Cavaliers)
2017
None
2016
No. 3 Jaylen Brown, Wheeler (Celtics)
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
