Russellville’s most honored basketball player in school history was drafted this weekend to play in the NBA’s G League, which is the equivalent of Class AAA baseball.
Pedro Bradshaw gave up a couple of more years of eligibility at Bellarmine University and has made himself available to play professional basketball.
He was the second pick of the Salt Lake City Stars in the G League Draft. That made him the 10th draftee in the second round and 38th overall.
The Stars are the G League affiliate of the Utah Jazz, which also makes its home in Salt Lake City. The Jazz are among the top-ranked NBA teams. They are led by All-Stars Donovan Mitchell, who played for the University of Louisville and has averaged 23 points per during his NBA career, and two-time reigning Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert.
Bradshaw has been declared the all-time career leading scorer and rebounder at RHS. Playing for Coach Phil Todd, he led the Panthers to the Fourth Region championship game in 2017 where they lost to Bowling Green, which won the state championship a week later.
He was a finalist for Mr. Kentucky Basketball and played for the Kentucky All-Stars against Indiana.
He signed to play for Belmont University in Nashville but didn’t see action during the fall semester and then obtained his release from the program. He then transferred to Eastern Kentucky University where he spent the spring semester of 2018 and then played for EKU in 2018-19.
Bradshaw played the last two seasons for Bellarmine University of Louisville, where he was a starter for two years. Bellarmine was one of the top-ranked contenders in NCAA Division II his junior year and then had a winning record in their first season of Division I basketball last year. He led the team in scoring and rebounding (16.0 points and 6.9 boards a game) and was named to the multi-state regional all=star team.
The Stars’ top pick in the draft was Ziare Wade, the 19-year-old son of Jazz part-owner Dwyane Wade, a star of three NBA championship teams at Miami. The younger Wade has not played college basketball. He was the number 10 selection overall.
Among those drafted was former University of Kentucky standout Brandon Knight, who has averaged double figures in almost 450 NBA games. Jazz newspaper columnist Andy Larson lists as the most notable signees in addition to Wade:
• Former NBA guard Brandon Knight going No. 6 to Sioux Falls (Miami’s G League affiliate)
• Former NBA guard Lance Stephenson going No. 13 to Grand Rapids (Denver’s G League affiliate)
• Brother of NBA guards LaMelo and Lonzo Ball, LiAngelo Ball, going No. 14 to Greensboro (Charlotte’s G League affiliate)
Larson also wrote: “The Stars also drafted Bellarmine guard Pedro Bradshaw with the No. 10 selection in the second round of the draft, and Binghamton guard J.C. Show with the same selection in the third round. They are expected to fight for roster spots on the team in training camp.”