Former BYU men’s basketball guard Alex Barcello will play in the NBA Summer League as a member of the Toronto Raptors, The Salt Lake Tribune has learned.
Barcello ended his career with the Cougars team already with a strong legacy behind his name. But his goal was to reach the NBA. That’s why he returned to BYU for a final season in 2021-22.
Over the past several weeks, Barcello, who was nowhere to be found on mock NBA draft boards, worked out for several NBA teams, just trying to make enough of an impression so he could hopefully land with one of them. One of those teams was the Utah Jazz.
As draft night Thursday came and went, Barcello didn’t get picked and there were no reports that he had signed a two-way contract with an NBA team.
That is, until Friday afternoon.
Barcello averaged 16.8 points, 3.3 assists and 3.8 rebounds in his final season with the Cougars. He shot 42.1% from the 3-point line. At one point last season, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas labeled him as “the best shooter in the country.”
Toronto finished fifth in the Eastern Conference last season, but lost in the first round of the NBA playoffs to the Philadelphia 76ers in six games.
