STANFORD, Calif. – Ebuka Okorie joined Stanford’s remarkable list of players chosen in the NBA Draft, as the freshman guard was selected with the 17th pick of the first round by the Oklahoma City Thunder. Okorie’s draft rights were reportedly traded on draft night to the Detroit Pistons.
Okorie became the 14th first round pick in program history, and the 44th all-time, and he is the highest Cardinal player selected since Ziaire Williams went 10th overall in the 2021 NBA Draft.
Okorie is the 11th player selected in the top-20 in program history, joining five lottery picks in Rich Kelley (7th, 1975), Adam Keefe (10th, 1992), Josh Childress (6th, 2004), Brook Lopez (10th, 2008) and Ziaire Williams (10th, 2021) as well as Todd Lichti (15th, 1989), Brevin Knight (16th, 1997), Jason Collins (18th, 2001), Curtis Borchardt (18th, 2002) and Robin Lopez (15th, 2008). He is the ninth-highest pick in program history.
Okorie gives Stanford an entry to the NBA for the third consecutive season, along with Maxime Raynaud (Sacramento Kings, 2025) and Spencer Jones (Denver Nuggets, 2024), and Stanford has had a player selected in five of the past eight NBA Drafts, a mark only matched in the ACC by Duke (8) and North Carolina (6).
Perhaps the best scoring guard in the Draft, Okorie is Stanford’s second official first round draft pick of the Oklahoma City Thunder, along with Josh Huestis (29th, 2014), while the Detroit Pistons, who acquired his draft rights, have never officially selected a Cardinal player. He will be the second player in program history to join the Detroit Pistons franchise, along with former NBA scoring champion George Yardley in the 1950s.
Okorie gave Stanford an AP All-America honorable mention selection for the second consecutive season, marking the first back-to-back honorees for Stanford since 2001-02. The Nashua, New Hampshire native finished second all-time in a single season at Stanford in scoring average (23.2 ppg) and third in total points (719), while leading the ACC in scoring and ranking seventh nationally, including the third-best mark among freshmen.
Okorie broke ACC freshman records for single-season scoring average and 30-point games (8), and he set new Stanford freshman records in points, field goals and free throws. Okorie’s long list of accolades includes selections to the All-ACC first team, ACC All-Rookie team and NABC All-Pacific Division first team. He was a four-time ACC Rookie of the Week and one-time ACC Player of the Week.
One of the most dynamic players to wear the Stanford uniform, Okorie became the first Stanford athlete to score 40 points in a game since 2002, doing so against Georgia Tech on Feb. 7, and he broke the Stanford freshman single-game scoring record three times. He is one of six freshmen in ACC history with a 40-point game.
Stanford had five active players in the NBA last season in Raynaud (Sacramento Kings), Jones (Denver Nuggets), Ziaire Williams (Brooklyn Nets), Brook Lopez (Los Angeles Clippers), and Dwight Powell (Dallas Mavericks), in addition to one NBA head coach in Mitch Johnson (San Antonio Spurs). Raynaud, who was chosen to the NBA All-Rookie second team, also contributed Smith with back-to-back selections in the category, as Jaylen Wells (Memphis Grizzlies via Washington State) was honored in 2025.