Brooklyn Nets center Nic Claxton has been having a solid NBA career ever since he was taken by the Nets with the 31st overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. While Brooklyn has seen Claxton grow from a college player with plenty of potential to a center making $25 million per season, he is being honored by his high school for what he did as a teenager.
“A Greenville native and NBA star is back home to receive a special honor. Nic Claxton, a former students and basketball player at Legacy Early College, will have his jersey retired on Monday inside the Parker Gymnasium,” FOX Carolina’s Anisa Snipes wrote on Monday morning. Snipes went on to write that a private event was held at his high school on Sunday to recount his NBA journey before he was told of the jersey retirement.
“Honestly I was taken aback. I didn’t know what was going on. I was confused but when they said that that’s what was being presented today. I’m just— ecstatic,” Claxton said of the retirement, per Snipes. Not only was Claxton honored with a jersey retirement, but the city of Greenville, South Carolina decreed that Aug. 17 will be known as “Nic Claxton Day,” according to Snipes.
Claxton, 26, is coming off a 2024-25 season in which he averaged 10.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game while shooting 56.3% from the field and 51.3% from the free-throw line. In three seasons at Legacy Charter School, Claxton scored 1,163 points, grabbed 594 rebounds and blocked 202 shots to lead the Lions to a combined 75-34 record while becoming just the fourth player in school history to reach 1,000 points.
More to the point, there are only 23 NBA players, including Claxton, that have played for the University of Georgia and Claxton is one of just three active players, including Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards and Memphis Grizzlies guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Claxton has made his way from Greenville to the NBA, but his hometown has not forgotten about his accomplishments prior to him getting to the league.