BCSP.com
Javonte Cooke, a Winston-Salem State product who has been playing professionally in the NBA and the NBA G-League after finishing his collegiate career for the Rams in 2022, is trying to make his mark in the Las Vegas
Summer League.
In three games so far off the bench for the Phoenix Suns squad, the 6-6, 185-pound sharpshooter has averaged 12 points per game, including a team-high 21 points Friday in an 81-79 win over his former team, the Portland Trailblazers.
Against Portland, he canned 7 of 12 shots from the field including 5 of 8 from 3-point range while playing just 24 minutes.
Cooke appeared in 19 regular season games for Portland this season averaging 1.2 pointsand 1.0 rebounds in about 5 minutes per game. He was waived on March 2.
He was the only black college product on a regular season NBA team and one of a few black college players to make the NBA after spending four years in college playing at the Div. II level. Cooke played three years at Mars Hill.
In 17 games for Portland’s G-League squad, the Rip City Remix before his NBA call-
up, Cooke averaged 20.1 points per game. He played 34.5 minutes per game while shooting .435 from the floor, .345 from behind the arc and .889 from the line.
He has had two stints with the Iowa Wolves, the Minnesota Timberwolves G-League squad, and one season with the Oklahoma City Blue, the OKC Thunder’s G-League team. He averaged above 16 points for Oklahoma and in his second season with Iowa.
In 2022 at WSSU, Cooke averaged 17.5 points, 3.9 rebounds 1.5 assists and 1.8 steals per game. He finished the season fifth in the CIAA in scoring, sixth in field goal percentage and first in 3-point field goal percentage and 3-point field goals per game.
Four other former black college players are on Las Vegas NBA Summer League teams but have not garnered significant playing time so far.
MEAC Player of the Year, 6-3 swingman Bryce Harris out of Howard, is on the OKC
Thunder’s squad. He has played in one of OKC’s two games getting four minutes off the bench with 4 points in a loss to the LA Lakers Friday.
Ohio Valley Conference Player of the year Aaron Nkrumah of Tennessee State is on the Denver Nuggets team. The 6-6, 175-pounder has not seen action in the Nuggets’ two Summer League games. The Nuggets have a veteran squad in Las Vegas.
The Detroit Pistons have two former black college players –Langston 6-3 guard Orlando Thomas and 6-8 former Florida Memorial forward Latavious Mitchell. Thomas played six minutes without scoring in a loss to the New York Knicks Monday. Mitchell has yet to see any action.
The Las Vegas Summer League runs thru Thursday, July 16 with the playoffs beginning on Friday, July 17 and running until Sunday,July 19.