{"id":140730,"date":"2025-07-02T03:26:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T03:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/140730\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T03:26:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T03:26:16","slug":"franklins-kennard-signs-one-year-11-million-deal-with-atlanta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/140730\/","title":{"rendered":"Franklin\u2019s Kennard signs one-year, $11 million deal with Atlanta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlanta will be the fourth team Kennard has played on since he was drafted in the first round of the 2017 NBA draft after two seasons at Duke University.<\/p>\n

ExploreFranklin \u2018couldn\u2019t ask for better ambassador\u2019 than Luke Kennard<\/a><\/p>\n

The Franklin native played last season with the Memphis Grizzlies where he averaged 8.9 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game.<\/p>\n

Mark Kennard said he expected his son to play a couple more seasons in Memphis, but the team took a different direction, and it was \u201ctime to move on.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said his son enjoyed his time in Memphis and looks forward to joining the Hawks and playing in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NBA is a business,\u201d Mark Kennard said. \u201cSometimes you have to look out for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennard\u2019s signing brings another impact player to Atlanta shortly after it brought in former Minnesota Timberwolves guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who signed a four-year, $62 million deal.<\/p>\n

Atlanta already acquired Kristaps Porzingis via trade and will see the return of forward Jalen Johnson alongside star guard Trae Young.<\/p>\n

For his career, with stops in Detroit, Los Angeles and Memphis, Kennard, 29, has averaged 9.8 points while shooting 45.7% from the field and 43.8% from three-point range.<\/p>\n

He ranks second in NBA history in career three-point field goal percentage and first among active players.<\/p>\n

\"Memphis<\/p>\n

Credit: AP<\/p>\n

\"icon<\/p>\n

Credit: AP<\/p>\n

At Franklin, Kennard was named the Parade National Player of the Year as a senior and the Ohio Gatorade Basketball Player of the Year as a junior and senior.<\/p>\n

Franklin has retired his No. 10 jersey and named the school\u2019s basketball court after him.<\/p>\n

Last year, 306 kids attended the Luke Kennard Basketball Camp at Camp Chautauqua that also included a \u201cOne Special Game\u201d basketball game for players with special needs.<\/a><\/p>\n

On one of the last nights of the camp, the campers, camp staff, and parents watched as 14 players with special needs participated in a basketball game, an event called \u201cOne Special Game,\u201d another brainchild of Berachah Church\u2019s Pastor Lamar Ferrell.<\/p>\n

The two teams, each comprised of seven players with differing disabilities, were named the Grizzlies and Memphis, in honor of the NBA team where Kennard, a 2015 Franklin High School graduate, played at the time.<\/p>\n

The game ended in a 32-32 tie which was appropriate considering there were no losers here.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pure electric,\u201d said Herb Davis, one of the referees. \u201cThe campers went crazy, the fans were in tears and the players had the time of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atlanta will be the fourth team Kennard has played on since he was drafted in the first round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3795],"tags":[6082,7,294,293,177,4070,27400,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-140730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-memphis-grizzlies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-grizzlies","11":"tag-memphis","12":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","13":"tag-memphisgrizzlies","14":"tag-mens-professional-sports","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114781512386848316","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}