Jahlil Okafor ( born December 15, 1995) is an American professional basketball player who plays for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played his freshman season of college for the2014–15 national championship team. He entered Duke with widespread recognition as the preseason Collegiate National Player of the Year. He played high school basketball in Chicago, Illinois for Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, where he earned high school national player of the year awards from McDonalds, USA Today and Parade. He signed with Duke as a package with Tyus Jones.
He was heavily recruited since before high school and had been at the top of the recruiting rankings for several years.[2] He is a distant cousin of Emeka Okafor. At the 2012 FIBA Under-17 World Championship, he earned the Tournament MVP for the gold-medal winning USA team. In 2013, Okafor led Whitney Young to the 2013 Chicago Public High School League (CPL) city championship. He was an All-American as a junior in 2013. The following summer, he was an All-Tournament team selection at the 2013 FIBA Under-19 World Championship for the gold-medal Team USA. Following his senior season, he earned broad All-American recognition and was named national player of the year by Parade, USA Today and McDonald's among other players.
At Duke, he earned the USBWA National Freshman of the Year and ACC Player of the Year. He was also a unanimous 2015 NCAA Men's Basketball All-American first-team selection. In the week following Duke's victory in the championship game of the2015 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament against Wisconsin, Okafor announced that he would enter the 2015 NBA draft. He was selected with the 3rd overall pick by the Philadelphia 76ers.
THROWBACKTHISDAY; makes it 20 years and TBT Blog wish him a happy birthday.
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