With 3 minutes and 16 seconds left in the fourth quarter, New Orleans Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy tapped Will Magnay on the shoulder and sent him to the scorer’s table to play in his first NBA game in today’s match-up against the LA Lakers.
It may have been “junk time” minutes with the Pelicans leading by 28 points but it will be a moment etched into the memory of Will Magnay forever and Australian hoops history with the Brisbane born big man becoming the 25th Australian to play in the NBA.
He attempted one shot and had the ball stolen off him by the Lakers Kostas Antetokounmpo but Magnay was nothing but smiles as he left the court.
The Pelicans defeated the Lakers 128-111 who were without injured All-Stars Lebron James and Anthony Davis. This is the second win in a row for New Orleans who were coming off an impressive 113-108 win against Denver Nuggets earlier in the week.
Magnay signed a two-year, two-way contract with the Pelicans in November and up until now had been earning his stripes with the Pelicans G-League affiliate, the Erie BayHawks.
Magnay had been averaging 9.1 points 5.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.5 blocks per game for the BayHawks but a string of games including a 20 point 7 rebound effort and a 17 point 4 rebound game against G-League teams the Raptors 905 and the Salt Lake City Stars led to him being called up to the team’s NBA roster on the 10th of March.
Magnay had a breakout year during the 2019–20 NBL season that saw him enter the Bullets starting line-up and receive attention from multiple NBA teams including the Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs before deciding to sign with the Pelicans.
Magnay now becomes the 135th player to have played in both the NBL and the NBA as well.
The Pelicans currently sit 11th in the Western Conference and seem likely to make the NBA playoffs play-in tournament so coach Van Gundy has been looking to the end of his bench to find what players will be able to step up in those moments if/when the team need team during this post-season run.
Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.
