OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - It’s a reunion years in the making, but one many never saw coming.
“Nobody would’ve ever thought that they would’ve been on the same team in the NBA,” Millard North boys basketball coach Michael Etzelmiller said.
Hunter Sallis and Saint Thomas played high school basketball together in Omaha for the Mustangs, winning a Class A state championship in 2021. Now, they both will play for the Philadelphia 76ers’ Summer League team after signing deals with the franchise on the second day of the NBA Draft.
Etzelmiller was the varsity assistant coach at Millard North when Sallis and Thomas played there.
“For them to leave as seniors from Millard North and stay here for four years, for them to go their own routes, do their own thing in college and be successful at the levels that they were at is great,” he said. “And then for them to all come back and, again, from Omaha to the NBA, to a Summer League team and, again, being able to have the opportunity to showcase their skills.”
Sallis told First Alert 6 on draft night that he signed on a two-way with the 76ers, while Thomas reportedly inked a Summer League deal with the franchise.
Chucky Hepburn and Hunter Sallis both will begin their NBA careers on two-way contracts.
Etzelmiller said it is rewarding to see how far they both have come.
“At the time, we just sat back and really tried to enjoy as much of the time as we could because it was maybe a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a team like that,” he said. “They were a group of guys that was hard to get out of the gym, just two gym rats and put in a lot of time. Really proud of how hard they’ve worked to get to this and how much they deserve this opportunity.”
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