{"id":3749,"date":"2025-04-29T14:59:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T14:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/3749\/"},"modified":"2025-04-29T14:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T14:59:11","slug":"labaron-philon-says-hes-focused-on-draft-but-things-can-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/3749\/","title":{"rendered":"Labaron Philon says he’s focused on draft, but ‘things can change’"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Alabama guard Labaron Philon<\/a> declare for the NBA Draft earlier this month, he made no indication that he was leaving the option open to return to school. It was initially thought that there was no path to him returning to Tuscaloosa for another season, but BOL reported that Philon is still weighing the option of a potential return<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Philon joined \u201cThe SchuZ Show\u201d<\/a> and discussed his NBA Draft decision, saying that he\u2019s completely focused on the draft right now, but maintaining a non-committal stance about staying in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say 100% draft, but you know, things can change. You never know,\u201d Philon said. \u201cI would say, I love \u2018Bama, the whole program, the school, the state. It was all love when I was playing there, I never received any hatred or nothing like that. Walking around school and being a kid again was mostly the most fun part for me. I\u2019ll never take that for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m all-in on the draft right now because I want to be a pro. You never know what will happen, so we\u2019ll just have to wait and see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philon was excellent during his freshman season with the Crimson Tide, averaging 10.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists as a breakout top-40 recruit. He was named to the SEC All-Freshman team at season\u2019s end for his performance, and helped Alabama make a second straight appearance in the Elite Eight.<\/p>\n

If he were to stay in the draft, Philon would aim to become Alabama\u2019s seventh NBA Draft selection under head coach Nate Oats<\/a>, and potentially his fifth first-rounder. Philon said he was confident he\u2019d be knocking on the NBA\u2019s door, and knew Alabama was the program to help him get there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew it would happen, I just had to be around the right coaches and the right school,\u201d Philon said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I went to Alabama and played for Coach Oats, I know what he brings to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philon will continue to go through the NBA Draft process, meeting and conducting workouts with teams in addition to participating in the NBA Draft Combine, which is held from May 11-18 in Chicago.<\/p>\n

The deadline for Philon to withdraw from the draft and return to school is May 28.<\/p>\n

Not a member, Alabama fans? Join BOL today!<\/p>\n

Have you subscribed to BamaOnLine.com yet? You can sign up for ONE MONTH of premium access to our Alabama coverage for just $11.99! Be able to read all of BOL\u2019s premium articles and nuggets covering Alabama sports and recruiting, and also join thousands of other Crimson Tide fans around the globe on the BOL Round Table message board!\u00a0CLICK HERE<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Alabama guard Labaron Philon declare for the NBA Draft earlier this month, he made no indication that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,1477,6,12,195],"class_list":{"0":"post-3749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-labaron-philon-24-link-academy","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nba-draft","12":"tag-regwall"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114421849423575707","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3749","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=3749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}