Keyontae Johnson collapsed whereas taking part in in a recreation at Florida in 2020, and was later identified with a coronary heart situation. (Brad Penner/USA Today)
Keyontae Johnson is now formally cleared and eligible for the NBA Draft.
Johnson was medically cleared on Friday by the NBA’s Fitness to Play panel, based on ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. That marked the final step Johnson wanted to be eligible for the NBA draft subsequent month.
Johnson will now begin touring and understanding for NBA groups forward of subsequent month’s draft.
While the information shouldn’t come as a lot of a shock, contemplating Johnson performed final season for Kansas State and was instrumental of their deep NCAA event run, it marks the top of what has been a tumultuous stretch for the 23-year-old.
In 2020, when Johnson was a junior at Florida, he collapsed throughout a recreation in opposition to Florida State and was rushed to the hospital. He was in a coma for 3 days.
“The very first thing I keep in mind waking up within the hospital is seeing my mother and he or she was holding my hand,” Johnson informed Yahoo Sports earlier this yr. “I heard her speaking and my imaginative and prescient was nonetheless blurry and he or she was the very first thing I noticed after which my dad walked in and simply the look on each their faces, I knew one thing occurred.”
Johnson missed the remainder of that season, after which briefly appeared in a single recreation throughout the 2021-22 marketing campaign. He transferred to Kansas State for his closing yr of eligibility final yr after being cleared by a number of docs and being identified with “athlete’s coronary heart.”
Johnson averaged 17.4 factors and 6.8 rebounds per recreation final season with the Wildcats and made it to the Elite Eight, the place they have been knocked out by Florida Atlantic.
It’s unclear the place Johnson will find yourself now within the NBA. Yahoo Sports’ Krysten Peek had him going No. 34 general to the Charlotte Hornets in her newest mock draft.
Either manner, although, Johnson is now formally eligible to be drafted within the first place.
“It’s the very best story in basketball,” one NBA scout informed Yahoo Sports earlier this yr. “To see him return to the court docket, and never solely return and log minutes, however really get higher is unimaginable. His shot creation and the way versatile he’s as a defender, having the ability to guard a number of positions, is efficacious on the NBA degree.”
After what he’s been via the previous a number of years, that’s an enormous milestone.
