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Laurelton native ‘Jazz’-ed up for NBA
Wright-Foreman looks to bring high scoring potential from Hofstra to Utah
BY ALEX MITCHELL
It was just a dream for
Laurelton’s Justin Wright-
Foreman to hear his name
called during the NBA Draft
when playing only a slim,
handful of minutes as a
freshman guard at Hofstra
University in 2015-16.
Now in 2019, after earning
back-to-back Colonial Athletic
Association’s player of the year
titles as the second highest
scorer in the nation for both
total points and points per
game, it’s not so shocking why
the Utah Jazz selected Wright-
Foreman in the second round
as the fifty third overall draft
pick on Saturday, June 20.
“I feel like I was just a
freshman,” Wright-Foreman
said in Salt Lake City in the
days following his big break.
“For all of this to be going
on and everything to be
happening, I’m just feeling
extremely blessed,” the
standout guard continued.
Nearly speechless upon
the overnight news, he took to
Twitter right after and simply
posted “Wow” while still in a
state of awe.
Wright-Foreman truly
began to roar for the Hofstra
Pride in his sophomore season
when he evolved into a starting
role off Hempstead Turnpike.
It was around JWF’s
breakout that Hofstra was
faced with the tall and tough
task of versing the sixth
ranked Kentucky Wildcats at
Justin Wright-Foreman Photo credit: Utah Jazz
Barclays Center.
Although the Pride fell
to the fellow jungle cats by a
score of 96-73, Justin Wright-
Foreman put on an offensive
display that caught national
attention for the first time.
“(He was) not afraid of
us at all,” Kentucky Head
Coach John Calipari said
in Brooklyn.
It was so much of a scoring
frenzy that Kentucky’s
Head Coach even admitted
uneasiness about a possible
rematch Wright-Foreman
and Hofstra during the
NCAA tournament.
Although that Kentucky
game was when the nation
was first piqued to Justin
Wright-Foreman’s scoring
capabilities, Hofstra’s Head
Coach Joe Mihalich had seen
it while scouting JWF at the
High School for Construction
Trades, Engineering, and
Architecture in Jamaica.
“I remember scouting
Justin as a senior and thinking
to myself, wow this guy really
can score,” Mihalich said.
By the time JWF was a
junior at Hofstra, Mihalich
realized that he was not only a
natural born scorer, but it was
his NBA skill.
“Players that get drafted
usually hold a specific skill
or trait that gets them noticed
by scouts, his was scoring, he
scores like a professional,”
the CAA Coach of the
Year continued.
That professional scoring
skill was put to the highest test
during JWF’s senior season
when Hofstra trailed rival
William & Mary late into the
second half.
Wright-Foreman put up
a program high 48 points
for Hofstra with most of the
scoring coming in the game’s
closing minutes to complete
the comeback in what’s gone
down as one of the most
exciting games in Hofstra
basketball history.
“I’ve never seen someone
score like that in person,”
Mihalich said.
Wright-Foreman closed out
his collegiate career shortly
following that momentous
evening at the David S.
Mack Sports and Exhibition
Complex, totaling 2,327
points while consecutively
scoring double figures in his
final 88 games, the seventh
longest streak in Division 1
basketball history.
“It shows that dreams
can come true at Hofstra,”
Mihalich said about the midmajor
team.
Justin Wright-Foreman
officially debuted in the NBA
on Monday, July 1, against
the Memphis Grizzlies in the
association’s summer league;
he not only held his own
but put up some impressive
finishing moves to the hoop in
the process.
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