NBA Draft 2022: Big night for basketball is also a big night for South Bend and Jaden Ivey

SOUTH BEND — He's the one. He’ll be the first.

In a city where college football is king, in a state where basketball is pretty much religion, South Bend still has seen its share of talented players who can hoop. For as long as they’ve been playing high school basketball on those winter Friday nights, the city — the area — never has sent a player on to the NBA as a first-round draft pick.

On Thursday, not long after the 2022 NBA draft commences from Barclays Center in New York, former Marian High School standout and South Bend native Jaden Ivey will change that.

Ivey, who played three prep seasons at Marian before finishing at La Lumiere School in LaPorte, is expected to be the first guard taken, maybe as early as No. 4 to the Sacramento Kings. Or No. 5 to the Detroit Pistons. He might even be there at No. 6 when his home state team, the Indiana Pacers pick.

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No matter where he goes, when he goes, Ivey will be the first from South Bend to hear his name called by the NBA in the first round. Ever.

A second team All-American in 2022, the 6-foot-4 Ivey averaged 14.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 59 games during two seasons at Purdue. Boilermakers coach Matt Painter was the first to offer Ivey a scholarship the summer before his junior year.

"I was shocked,” Ivey told the Tribune in 2019. “That's when I knew that I was pretty good."

Ivey’s parents were professional athletes. His mother, Niele, played five seasons in the WNBA with the Indiana Fever. His father, former Notre Dame wide receiver Javin Hunter, played one season in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens. Ivey’s grandfather, James Hunter, spent five seasons with the Detroit Lions.

Ivey will be the first South Bend native drafted into the NBA since former Clay High School power forward Lee Nailon was a second-round pick in 1999. Nailon, who played collegiately at TCU, celebrated that night with family and friends in Las Vegas. Ivey is one of 24 prospects invited to the Barclays Center green room.

Ivey becomes only the sixth South Bend native drafted into the NBA. Former Indiana power forward Tom Abernathy was the first when he was a third-round selection of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1976. The others, including Nailon, were second-round picks – John Laskowski (1975), Dave Magley (1982) and Jimmy King (1985).

In 1947, former South Bend Central standout Bulbs Ehlers was a first-round selection (third overall) by the Boston Celtics in what was known as the Basketball Association of America. That league eventually became the NBA.

Ivey will be the first South Bend native selected Thursday, but not the last. Notre Dame freshman guard and former Riley High School standout Blake Wesley is also expected to be selected later in the first round. He'll be the seventh with South Bend roots drafted to the NBA.

Noie: Marian's Jaden Ivey chases his basketball dream

That Ivey prepped at Marian and is now headed for the NBA is almost fitting. If you have basketball talent, and NBA dreams and you live in Saint Joseph County, it’s almost a given that you have to play at Marian. That you learn under long-time head coach Robb Berger. That you go on to college and then, eventually, the NBA.

Ivey will be the third Marian player since 2016 to make it to the NBA. Former Marian guard, and Notre Dame standout, Demetrius Jackson was a second-round draft pick of the Boston Celtics in 2016. The Mishawaka native played NBA three seasons. Former Marian guard and Indiana All-Star Devin Cannady has played 13 games over the last two seasons with the Orlando Magic as an undrafted free agent.

Along comes Ivey who averaged 25 points per game in his junior year at Marian, where he scored 958 points in three seasons.

Following his third season, Ivey transferred to La Lumiere, in part because his mother took a then-unprecedented job of assistant coach with the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies. During Niele Ivey’s one year in Memphis, which ended when she was named head coach at Notre Dame, her son spent time around Grizzlies guard Ja Morant.

f there’s one current NBA player who Ivey has been compared to, it’s Morant for his next-level quickness in the open court, the ability to get to where he wants to go and to finish at the rim.

Sometime Thursday, they’ll become NBA colleagues.

"I'm thankful to play this game," Ivey told the Tribune in 2019. "You work on your craft and let it happen, it can take you so many places."

Those words still hold true Thursday.

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on Twitter: @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Jaden Ivey: After 2 seasons at Purdue is Ivey ready for NBA Draft?