Cunningham will enter NBA draft

Cade Cunningham used to see superstars when he watched NBA players. Now, he sees opponents. They soon will see him, too.

Cunningham announced Thursday that he will enter the NBA draft after a dynamic freshman season for Oklahoma State that saw him named a first-team AP All-American.

“I see them as more human now than I used to,” he said. “I’ve been looking at those guys since I was a sophomore in high school. Those are the guys I’ve got to try to outwork right now.”

The 6-foot-8 point guard is expected to be a high pick — possibly No. 1 overall. His decision was no surprise — the 19-year-old Cunningham participated in Senior Night activities before the Cowboys faced Oklahoma in Stillwater.

But even after Oklahoma State’s NCAA Tournament loss to Oregon State, Cunningham wouldn’t fully commit either way, deflecting a question about his future while hinting he was ready to move on. He finally made his declaration in a news conference at Gallagher-Iba Arena with coach Mike Boynton by his side and his teammates seated in the courtside bleachers.

“It’s hard to make that decision in the moment, so I just wanted to wait until my head was level,” he said. “But I was just blessed to have that opportunity to be able to enter the draft. I felt like I had did a lot of the work early to be in that position.”

Cunningham won the Wayman Tisdale Award as the top freshman in college basketball. He led the Big 12 in scoring with 20.2 points per game. In league play, he ranked in the top 10 in scoring (20.1), seventh in rebounding (6.5), eighth in field goal percentage (.443), 10th in assists (3.3) and seventh in free throw percentage (.843).

■ A trio of men’s basketball players asked NCAA President Mark Emmert during a video call Thursday to abide by, and enforce, Title IX gender equity rules and to create a waiver that would let college athletes start earning money from use of their names, images and likenesses this year. What did the three students say they heard in return? “A lot of talk,” according to Iowa’s Jordan Bohannon. Another player involved, Rutgers’ Geo Baker, said Emmert repeatedly referred to waiting for Congress to intervene and summed up the session this way: “What it really sounded like was that the NCAA doesn’t really want to be the first to make action.”

NBA: Hawks forward John Collins will be out at least a week with a sprained left ankle, another blow to the injury plagued team. Collins was injure during during Tuesday night’s loss to the Suns. He underwent an MRI that showed a lateral ankle sprain and associated bone bruise.

NFL: The sister of Chargers controlling owner Dean Spanos is petitioning a California court to put one-third of the team’s ownership stake up for sale. Dea Spanos Berberian filed a petition Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court contending that mounting debt from the franchise is creating an estimated yearly loss of at least $11 million for the family trust. According to the petition, the trust had debts and expenses of $353 million as of Sept. 30. Nearly half of that ($164,778,931) is due to the trust’s investment in the Chargers. The trust’s stake in the Chargers makes up 83% of its holdings.