Ignas Brazdeikis (born January 8, 1999) is a Lithuanian-Canadian professional basketball player for Olympiacos of the Greek Basket League and the EuroLeague. He played college basketball for the Michigan Wolverines. He has represented the Canadian national teams in junior levels. During the season, he established a Michigan record by earning four Big Ten Freshmen of the week awards and was included on both the John Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 and Late Season Top 20 watchlists. As a freshman, he was a 2019 Second team All-Big Ten selection, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and a Big Ten All-Freshman honoree. Brazdeikis was selected with the 47th overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings, and was then traded to the New York Knicks.
Early life
Brazdeikis was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, to Diana and Sigitas "Sigis" Brazdeikis. He has an older sister, Ema. His second aunt, Lina Brazdeikytė, is a former professional basketball player who won the EuroBasket Women 1997 with the Lithuania women's national team. His family emigrated to Chicago before moving to Winnipeg and Etobicoke (where he started to play basketball at the age of six) before settling in Oakville, Ontario.
High school career
Brazdeikis attended Holy Trinity CSS in Oakville, where he became the first grade nine student to play for the senior team. He then transferred to Orangeville Prep in Mono, where he was named Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association MVP in 2017 and 2018. As a junior he led Orangeville to the 2017 OSBA championship and won the tournament MVP award. Brazdeikis is generally right-handed, including his dribble, but shoots the basketball left-handed. During Brazdeikis's high school years, he was mentored by former Wolverine Nik Stauskas.
By May 2017 Brazdeikis was undecided between matriculating with the class of 2017 or 2018 and had taken unofficial visits to Michigan, Vanderbilt and Cincinnati. After accumulating offers from several schools including Baylor, Cal, Illinois, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, and USC and rankings of number 66 overall and 16 small forward at 247sports.com, Brazdeikis announced that he would officially visit Michigan, Vanderbilt and Florida on September 8, 15 and 29, 2017, respectively. He gave a Michigan a verbal commitment on September 22. After he committed, Michigan stopped recruiting R. J. Barrett. He signed a National Letter of Intent with Michigan on November 10, 2017 along with the 2018 class that included Colin Castleton, David DeJulius, Brandon Johns, and Adrien Nunez.
Brazdeikis was expected to be Michigan's best incoming freshman according to Yahoo Sports and ESPN in 2018.
College career
In Michigan's November 6, 63–44 victory over Norfolk State, Brazdeikis debuted with 12 points in head coach John Beilein's 800th career win. In his second game on November 10, during a 56–37 victory against Holy Cross, Brazdeikis added 19 points, including 15 points in the first five minutes to start the second half as well as seven rebounds. On November 18, Brazdeikis helped Michigan defeat Providence 66–47 to win the Hall of Fame Tip Off tournament with a game-high 20 points and another 7 rebounds. He repeated his 20-point, 7-rebound performance the next time out on November 23 against Chattanooga during their 83–55 victory. Brazdeikis posted his third consecutive 20-point game on November 28, as Michigan defeated (#11 AP Poll/#13 Coaches Poll) North Carolina 84–67 in the ACC–Big Ten Challenge behind his career-high 24 points.