After giving up millions of dollars in the transfer portal, former St. John’s star R.J. Luis has found a new home in the NBA.
The Big East Player of the year and Most Outstanding Player of the Big East Tournament, Luis has agreed to a Two-Way Contract with the Utah Jazz after going undrafted on Thursday. The news was first reported by ESPN.
“Trust God where he’s taking you,” Luis posted on Instagram.
The 6-foot-7 Luis, who averaged 18.2 points and 7.2 rebounds for the Big East regular-season champs, joins a team that added ex-Rutgers star Ace Bailey and former Iona and Florida star Walter Clayton Jr. in the Draft.
Players on Two-Ways earned $578,577 last season, half of the rookie minimum.
“He clearly made a bad financial decision,” said a coach from one school that was recruiting Luis in the transfer portal.
After a controversial end to his season that saw St. John’s coach Rick Pitino bench Luis during the final minutes of the team’s second-round NCAA Tournament loss to Arkansas, Luis declared for the draft and entered the portal.
He said he was “fully into the draft” and called the portal a “backup plan” despite reportedly received starting offers “in the $3 million-$4 million range” from Kansas, Arkansas, North Carolina, Indiana, and other schools.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily a risk,” Luis, 22, told Sean Gregory of Time Magazine earlier this month. “If I do what I have to do in the NBA, then I can make even way more money than that. So it’s not even about the money. Because if it was, I would have gone back to college. But it’s just trying to set myself up for the future, to be honest. I think I had an amazing year. What better time would it be to go to the next level and pursue my dreams of playing in the NBA?”
He said he was betting on himself.
“That’s what I’ve been doing my whole life,” Luis said. “I’ve had countless people telling me what my limitations are. But I end up passing their expectations. So yeah, I’d say I’m betting on myself. I’ll always take me, 100%.”
At the Final Four in San Antonio, Pitino said he believed Luis would shoot up draft boards after workouts.
“R.J. is not thinking at all about going to college,” Pitino said. “Our goal from day one this year was for him to go to NBA. He’ll go to workouts, and he’ll move just like Donovan [Mitchell] did, and just like the other guys, he’ll move up the ladder. He’ll go from the second round, I think, into the late first round.”
In a recent interview with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, Luis said he was “hurt” by what transpired in the Arkansas game and that ” I think (Pitino) could…have did a better job… picking my head up.”
“I’m kind of past that,” Luis said when he won the Haggerty Award as the top play in the metropolitan area. “Now, obviously, I’m focused on the draft process. You can only control what you can control. I feel like everything is in the past.”
He said the ending to the season did not trigger his decision to enter the Draft.
“I was fully determined on entering my name in a draft this year,” he said. “Obviously, after an incredible season that I had, that was always the main goal. And I felt like the entire coaching staff was also on board with that decision. And it was mutual.”
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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter and Basketball Insider for NJ Advance Media. You may follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoria and check out his Website at ZAGSBLOG.com.