After spending several hours in the green room at Barclays Center, waiting for his name to be called, former UConn Huskies star forward Liam McNeeley’s NBA dream has come true.
With the twenty-ninth pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, the Phoenix Suns selected McNeeley, making him the twenty-fifth player in Huskies history to go in the first round. While McNeeley was technically drafted by the Suns, he will in fact, be en route to the Charlotte Hornets, joining fellow rookie Kon Knueppel, who went fourth overall to the Hornets.
Charlotte got a good one 🫡
Liam McNeeley is headed to the @hornets ➡️ pic.twitter.com/vKH5UBo6Uy
— UConn Men’s Basketball (@UConnMBB) June 26, 2025
“This is a dream come true,” said McNeeley moments after being selected twenty-ninth overall. “Regardless of the number I was picked, I was drafted into the NBA.”
McNeeley appeared in 27 games, 26 being starts, for UConn. He averaged 14.5 points as their leading scorer while also posting 6.0 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game. He won Big East Rookie of the Year and earned a spot on the Big East All-Freshman Team while also making the All-Big East Third Team.
In McNeeley and Knueppel, Charlotte has added a pair of high-level shooters who’ve been lauded as two of the most competitive players in this 2025 NBA Draft class. Both will beautifully complement what the Hornets are building around LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller, giving an extraordinary amount of spacing for Charlotte head coach Charles Lee to coordinate.
For Huskies fans, McNeeley falling to the second-to-last pick in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft might come as a surprise. But, with the competitive fire that McNeeley carries, along with him not caring where he went in the draft, the Hornets have a fire starter in McNeeley who could carve out a long-term NBA career.