Jalen Suggs

BIOGRAPHY

Jalen Suggs was born on June 3, 2001, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is a guard in the NBA. Suggs' father was an accomplished local athlete. Suggs started playing basketball at an early age. In seventh grade, he played three games of junior varsity basketball for Minnehaha Academy, a private Christian school in Minneapolis, before moving to the varsity team. Suggs was a starter at the varsity level as an eighth-grader, averaging 17.5 points, 4.4 steals and four assists per game. Suggs won a gold medal with the United States at the 2017 FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship in Formosa, Argentina. In four games, he averaged 7.5 points and 2.8 rebounds per game. At the 2018 FIBA Under-17 World Cup in Argentina, Suggs averaged 8.7 points and 3.3 steals per game and won another gold medal. He joined the United States at the 2019 FIBA Under-19 World Cup in Heraklion, Greece, averaging 9.6 points per game and helping his team win the gold medal. Suggs scored 15 points, his best mark in the tournament, in the final against Mali. In his college debut for Gonzaga on November 25, 2020, Suggs recorded 24 points and eight assists in a 102–90 win over Kansas. On December 2, during a game against West Virginia, he suffered an apparent foot injury but returned later in the game. On December 19, Suggs posted a career-high 27 points, seven rebounds and four assists, shooting 7-of-10 from three-point range, in a 99–88 win over third-ranked Iowa.

He was taken 5th in the NBA draft by the Orlando Magic in the 2021 NBA Draft.