The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Yale’s forward Jordan Bruner to enter 2020 NBA draft
Yale’s All-Ivy League forward Jordan Bruner will be making himself available to be selected in the NBA Draft.
“I felt like I was ready to show NBA people what I was capable of,” Bruner said. “I decided I was going to make a decision when the season ended and the season ended earlier that we thought and I made my decision.”
The 6-foot-9 Bruner began playing basketball while living in Oklahoma but his family relocated to Columbia, S.C. when his older sister Ashley enrolled at the University of South Carolina. He was a 6-foot-8 point guard when he was 16 but he had an injury the following year and when he returned, he was asked to play in the post.
His versatility was on display at Yale as Bruner recorded the first tripledouble in program history against Cornell on Feb. 21. He led the Bulldogs with 257 rebounds and 48 blocked shots, was second on the team with 104 assists and third with 305 points and 29 steals as he helped Yale win the outright Ivy League regularseason title for just the fourth time.
Bruner was the only returning starter from the 2018-19 Yale team that earned a share of the Ivy League regular-season title and earned a spot in the NCAA tournament. The Bulldogs were slated to play in the NCAAs in back to back seasons for the first time in program history before the Ivy League announced its decision to cancel all athletic competition through the remainder of the academic year due to further developments in the outbreak of COVID-19.
This is the second straight year that a Yale men’s basketball star will relinquish his final season of eligibility to embark on a professional basketball career. Miye Oni, the 201819 Ivy League Player of the Year, opted not to return for his senior season. He was drafted by Golden State with the 58th overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft
and his rights were traded to Utah. Oni has spent most of the season with the NBA G League’s Salt Lake City Stars and has played in five NBA regular-season games. Bruner missed his sophomore season due to injury. He opted to remain enrolled at Yale and as a result, he would have needed to transfer to another university to take advantage of his final season of eligibility.
“I’m going to start talking to agents, continue to take care of my body, continue to work hard and try to take my game to the next level before I have to go in for any summer workouts,” Bruner said.
Bruner’s decision was first reported by WTNH.