After long road, Maker adds intrigue to NBA Draft

CHICAGO (AP) — The picture of the Larry O’Brien Trophy that is his phone’s wallpaper could be Thon Maker’s reminder to maintain his focus and not lose sight of his ultimate goal.

Or, maybe it just looks good.

“I’ve had this for two years,” Maker said Friday at the NBA Draft Combine. “I love trophies. I collect them in my room. It’s beautiful. It makes my phone look good.”

Maker is one of the many prospects trying to look good for NBA executives in an effort to boost their stock in next month’s draft. And he just might be the most intriguing of all, given where he came from and how he reached this point.

The 7-footer from South Sudan who moved to Australia as a child and had been living in Canada is poised to become the first player to jump from high school to the NBA in 11 years, after the league ruled him eligible for the draft a month ago.

“I was just praying and waiting to get in,” said Maker, who had started working out in South Carolina when the decision came. “When I got accepted, I was really happy. My family called me. They said they read the good news online. Just had to be humbled knowing that now it’s like you’re starting your freshman year of high school. You’ve really got to go in there and just put a big goal in your mind just to get better and work as hard as you can.”

Not since the league instituted a rule in the 2005 Collective Bargaining Agreement that U.S. players be at least …

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