{"id":704558,"date":"2026-04-08T04:29:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T04:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/704558\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T04:29:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T04:29:50","slug":"louisville-freshman-mikel-brown-jr-declares-for-draft-field-level-media-professional-sports-content-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/704558\/","title":{"rendered":"Louisville freshman Mikel Brown Jr. declares for draft &#8211; Field Level Media &#8211; Professional sports content solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Louisville freshman guard and projected lottery pick Mikel Brown Jr. declared for the 2026 NBA Draft on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince I first picked up a basketball, it\u2019s been my dream to play in the NBA,\u201d he posted on Instagram. \u201cI\u2019ve decided to take that leap, declare for the draft, and chase that dream. No matter where the game takes me, Louisville will always be a part of who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 6-foot-5 Brown averaged 18.2 points, 4.7 assists and 3.3 rebounds in 21 games (19 starts) for the Cardinals this season. He missed 14 games with a back injury but made the Atlantic Coast Conference all-rookie team and All-ACC third team.<\/p>\n<p>Brown set an ACC single-game freshman record by scoring 45 points in a 118-77 victory against NC State on Feb. 9, eclipsing the mark of 42 set by Duke\u2019s Cooper Flagg the previous season. He knocked down 10 3-pointers.<\/p>\n<p>A McDonald\u2019s All-American at DME Academy in Daytona Beach, Fla., Brown was a consensus five-star recruit in the Class of 2025. He was the top-ranked point guard and No. 8 player overall by the 247 Sports composite.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN recently projected Brown as the seventh overall selection in the June 25-26 draft.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013Field Level Media<\/p>\n<p>                                            <img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775622590_811_be4452b65ace878d206f2029709048c825036e3517e6a89f4eedc3d4c530e2ba.jpeg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-96 photo\" height=\"96\" width=\"96\" decoding=\"async\"\/>                                            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louisville freshman guard and projected lottery pick Mikel Brown Jr. declared for the 2026 NBA Draft on Tuesday.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,231,772,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-704558","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-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116367211837705015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704558","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=704558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}