Zuby Ejiofor helped St. John's end a number of droughts the past two seasons and he eliminated another one Tuesday night.
Ejiofor, arguably the program's best player this century, became the school's first first-round pick in 14 years, since Maurice Harkless went 15th overall in 2012.
The Hawks took the 6-foot-8 Ejiofor 23rd overall, one pick before the Knicks were on the clock. An emotional Ejiofor, in Dallas with family and friends, broke down when he saw his name announced.
Zuby Ejiofor was taken by the Hawks with the 23rd pick in the NBA draft. Robert Sabo for New York Post
The Nigerian-born Ejiofor came a long way in four years, from rarely playing as a freshman at Kansas to developing into one of the premier players in college basketball as a senior at St. John's.
Still, going in the first round was a question, with Ejiofor projected to go anywhere from late in the first round to early in the second. Scouts wondered about him being undersized for his position, whether he could make enough shots to be a court-spacer and score inside against bigger defenders.
The Hawks didn't have such concerns.
"Zuby, the guy's a beast. If you guys have seen him play at St. John's, you're talking about a guy that switches one through five, could guard point guards, guard bigs, could guard big wings — like it doesn't really matter," Hawks president of basketball operations Onsi Saleh said after the pick. "With him, we like the high-level processing he has offensively. It's just like he makes the right play every single time. He's a really good passer for his size, giant wingspan. … This guy is somebody that you see in playoff basketball and he's a guy that fits [us]."
Instead of staying in New York to play for the Knicks, Ejiofor joins one of their Eastern Conference rivals. The Knicks beat the Hawks in six games in the opening round of the playoffs this year.
Ejiofor joins a quality, on-the-rise franchise with a strong young core on the perimeter featuring Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels and fellow first-round pick Kingston Flemings of Houston, who went eighth overall. Ejiofor didn't work out for the Hawks, but he did have a Zoom meeting with them.
In picking Ejiofor, the Hawks gained a lot of fans in Queens. Over the past two years, Ejiofor led St. John's to back-to-back Big East regular-season and postseason crowns. This past March, he helped them reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in 27 years and was the lone high-major player in the country to lead his team in points, rebounds, steals and blocked shots.
Now, he is a first-round draft pick — the 18th to play for Pitino.
St. John's isn't done in the NBA draft. Dillon Mitchell is expected to hear his name called in the second round Wednesday night, and there is a chance Bryce Hopkins does as well. The Red Storm haven't had two players drafted in the same year since 2000, when Erick Barkley (first round, 28th overall) and Lavor Postell (second round, 39th) were both selected.
