CHICAGO \u2014 Not everyone thought Kasparas Jakucionis was making the right choice a year ago when he decided the next step of his basketball career should happen in the United States on a college campus.<\/p>\n
Other European players told Jakucionis it was a risk. That the chance to \u201cdisappear in college\u201d was a possibility.<\/p>\n
Jakucionis ignored the doubters.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as they started talking,\u201d he told The News-Gazette on Wednesday at the 2025 NBA draft combine in Chicago. \u201cAs soon as they told me something I didn\u2019t believe. I chose what I wanted to choose. I believed in myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jakucionis\u2019 choice brought him to Champaign. To a season at Illinois. The 18-year-old bet on himself when others wouldn\u2019t, and is about to reap the rewards.<\/p>\n
Jakucionis participated in the required draft combine events. Anthropometric testing was Monday where the Illini freshman measured in at 6 feet, 33\/4 inches barefoot and 205.2 pounds with a 6-73\/4 wingspan and 8-4 standing reach.<\/p>\n
Tuesday was agility testing and shooting drills. Jakucionis flashed in the latter as a top 20 shooter in spot-up situations, corner threes and in the three-point star drill.<\/p>\n
And Wednesday put the Lithuanian standout in front of the media where he discussed the risk he took in choosing college basketball.<\/p>\n
At least according to other people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t believe them,\u201d Jakucionis said. \u201cI still trusted myself. I believed in myself. I just wanted to compete against the best players that had the same dream as me to go to the NBA.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people didn\u2019t recommend me to go to college because of other European players\u2019 challenges. I like to go through challenges. That\u2019s why I moved to Barcelona when I just turned 15 because I thought it would help me grow a lot more as a basketball player and a person. The same happened with Illinois. I just wanted to make a step forward to keep improving and keep growing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jakucionis\u2019 third day at the combine didn\u2019t include any 5-on-5 scrimmaging. Mostly because it didn\u2019t need to. The Illinois guard has long been a projected first-round pick and likely winds up off the board before the lottery is complete in next month\u2019s draft in Brooklyn, N.Y.<\/p>\n
Even with those projections, Jakucionis lit up discussing his time in Chicago as another step in realizing a long-held dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really amazing to be here seeing the NBA logo everywhere,\u201d Jakucionis said. \u201cIt\u2019s the thing I\u2019ve been working for and that I\u2019ve been dreaming for. I think everyone starts when they\u2019re little. Every basketball player dreams to play in the NBA. If your dream is not to play in the NBA, you\u2019re not a real basketball player.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting. I\u2019m so happy to be here. To do the drills and all that kind of stuff with an NBA jersey for the first time \u2014 not a real jersey, but an NBA draft combine jersey \u2014 is closer to the dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jakucionis has met with several NBA teams during the pre-draft process. Not so much for feedback, but to have the conversations and establish relationships.<\/p>\n
Various mock drafts have Jakucionis going ninth overall to the Toronto Raptors (CBS Sports, The Ringer), 10th to the Houston Rockets (ESPN, Yahoo! Sports) or 11th to the Portland Trail Blazers (The Athletic, Bleacher Report).<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I can adapt to whatever a team needs me to do,\u201d Jakucionis said, declining to list any favored preferred destination. \u201cI can play on the ball and play make for others. I can execute 100 percent on the defensive end. I can play off the ball. Whatever a team needs me to do, I\u2019ll be ready for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jakucionis considers himself prepared for the next level in part because he made the move to the U.S. and played a season of college basketball. It was unique enough compared to his his time with Barcelona and representing Lithuania in FIBA events to make a difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe difference, I think, is the players\u2019 talent and athleticism,\u201d Jakucionis said, comparing his experience at Illinois and in the Big Ten compared to Europe. \u201cThe speed of the game, there\u2019s quicker decisions to make. I think I grew up a lot with making quicker decisions, quicker passes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Growth Jakucionis can attribute to the gamble he took in choosing college basketball where the reward well outweighed any risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Not everyone thought Kasparas Jakucionis was making the right choice a year ago when he decided…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,3706,231,772,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-34055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-illini-sports","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114510248271318295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34055","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=34055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}