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  • Edgecombe the NBA Draft’s No. 3 overall pick, highest in BU MBB history

    // Posted In Alumni, Athletics, Honors

    VJ Edgecombe shakes hands with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver after being drafted

    For the fifth straight year, a Baylor Bear was taken in the first round of the NBA draft — and this one went higher than any Bear before him.

    With the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, the Philadelphia 76ers selected Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe — making the Big 12 Freshman of the Year the highest draft pick in Baylor basketball history. The previous mark was held by Ekpe Udoh, who was selected at No. 6 by the Warriors in 2010.

    Edgecombe is Baylor’s 14th pick in the last 13 NBA drafts — the most by any team in Texas — and the program’s 12th first-round pick, with nine of those coming since 2010 under head coach Scott Drew. Perhaps most impressively, Baylor is the only program in the country with top-19 picks in each of the last five NBA drafts.

    To put his selection in another context, only eight Bears have ever been drafted higher in any sport. A rundown of the highest draft picks in Baylor Athletics history:

    • No. 1 — Brittney Griner, 2013 (WNBA)
    • No. 2 — Jack Wilson, 1942 (NFL)
    • No. 2 — Adrian Burk, 1950 (NFL)
    • No. 2 — Lawrence Elkins, 1965 (AFL)
    • No. 2 — Jason Smith, 2009 (NFL)
    • No. 2 — Robert Griffin III, 2012 (NFL)
    • No. 2 — Odyssey Sims, 2014 (WNBA)
    • No. 2 — NaLyssa Smith, 2022 (WNBA)
    • No. 3 — Ronnie Bull, 1962 (AFL)
    • No. 3 — Lauren Cox, 2020 (WNBA)
    • No. 3 — VJ Edgecombe, 2025 (NBA)
    • No. 4 — Sophia Young, 2006 (WNBA)
    • No. 4 — Brette Reagan, 2009 (NPF)
    • No. 5 — Cotton Davidson, 1954 (NFL)
    • No. 5 — Stan Hilton, 1983 (MLB)

    “My time here at Baylor, I’m going to be honest — it’s the best place,” Edgecombe said earlier this spring. “I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything in the world. Not for the national championship, nothing.

    “You’re gonna grow spiritually here. That’s what drew me to Baylor — to grow as a man. Basketball’s gonna stop, I promise you. Basketball’s gonna stop, and how am I going to approach life after that? I just want to be the best man I can be. I just want to stay connected to God, and if you want to stay connected to God, come to Baylor, for sure.”

    Edgecombe will only add to Baylor’s presence in the NBA, as a school-record 11 Bears played in the league in 2024-25.

    Sic ’em, VJ!