After not being selected in Thursday's NBA Draft, former Hoosier guard Robert Johnson will take another route to try to break into the professional ranks.
On Saturday, it was announced Johnson accepted an invitation to play for the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA Summer League.
As a senior, the 6-foot-3-inch guard finished second on the team in scoring, averaging 14 points per game on 42 percent shooting. He also pulled in more than four rebounds per game, dished out nearly three assists per game and hit more than 37 percent of his shots from behind the three-point arc.
Going from undrafted to finding a niche in the pros is nothing new to former Hoosiers.
In recent years there have been multiple players to successfully do what Johnson will attempt. After the 2016 NBA Draft, guard Yogi Ferrell and forward Troy Williams were able to earn a place in the league through the NBA Summer League and the G-League. Ferrell now plays for the Dallas Mavericks and Williams made stops with the Memphis Grizzlies and Houston Rockets before recently joining the New York Knicks.
After the 2017 NBA Draft, guard James Blackmon Jr. faced the same challenge. He was eventually able to catch on with the Delaware 87ers of the G-League before being traded to the Wisconsin Herd.
Auston Matricardi
