Virginia alum Mamadi Diakite is back in the NBA, on a 10-day contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Diakite was on the bench for OKC in the Thunder’s 122-118 loss at Washington Tuesday night after signing with the team earlier in the day.
Former ‘Hoos teammate Ty Jerome scored 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting for the Thunder in the setback.
Diakite appeared in two preseason games for OKC before fracturing his hip, which led to his release by the team.
After winning a national championship with UVA (and Jerome) in 2019, Diakite was part of the NBA title-winning Milwaukee Bucks team in 2021, scoring 3.1 points per game in 14 games with the Bucks after being called up from the team’s G-League affiliate in Lakeland, Fla., where he averaged 18.5 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.
Diakite started 22 games for the 2019 national champs, averaging 7.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game in the 2018-2019 season, stepping it up in the NCAA Tournament, in which he averaged 10.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, on 60.0 percent shooting.
As a senior in 2019-2020, Diakite averaged 13.7 points and 6.8 rebounds per game for a Virginia team that finished second in the ACC before that season was cut short by the COVID pandemic.
Story by Chris Graham
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