PROVO — Egor Demin’s time with BYU was a brief, one-year flash.
But his basketball career is just getting started.
Demin was selected with the No. 8 overall pick by the Brooklyn Nets in Wednesday’s first round of the 2025 NBA draft. The former BYU standout from Moscow, Russia, is the first player from BYU selected in the NBA draft since Jimmer Fredette in 2011.
The 6-foot-9 point guard — officially, 6 feet, 8.25 inches without shoes, as measured at the NBA draft combine — was an All-Big 12 freshman team selection and all-Big 12 honorable mention in his lone season of college basketball, when he averaged 10.6 points, 5.5 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 33 starts.
Demin helped lead the Cougars to BYU’s first Sweet 16 appearance since Fredette was in uniform, and he did it all in Kevin Young’s first season as a collegiate head coach.
The Russian wunderkind who arrived at BYU after a stint with the Real Madrid basketball academy in Spain set a record for the most assists in his BYU debut with 11, and went on to be one of four freshman in program history with multipole 10-plus assists games and the msot assists by a freshman in BYU history.
His 180 assists ranks the sixth-most all-time in BYU men’s basketball history. But as much as BYU helped him progress as a basketball player, Demin was open that the university sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — of which he is not a member — changed him personally, as well.
“I’m living my best life being a BYU student and a BYU player,” he told KSL.com at the start of the NCAA Tournament in Denver. “This is just so great, to be here next to (my teammates) and around them; I feel like it’s home. It’s a big family.
“I would say, really: thank you.”
Surrounded by friends and family, including Young and BYU women’s basketball star Delaney Gibb, Demin took the next step in his basketball career Wednesday night as he donned a Nets hat and embraced commissioner Adam Silver.
“He’s obviously a great basketball player, but he’s an even better person,” Gibb told BYUtv before the draft. “I think where ever he goes, he’s going to be great.”
This story will be updated.
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