HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Rockets selected Reed Sheppard with the third overall pick in the NBA draft Wednesday night, adding a elite long-range shooter to their young team.
“We ended up with Reed as the best player in the draft by quite a bit, the best prospect we thought… and kind of the only guy we were really focused on,” general manager Rafael Stone said. “So if he had not gotten to us we would have probably traded down or out of the draft. When we had the opportunity to pick him, we jumped on it.”
The guard, who spent one season at Kentucky, was the first American taken in this year's draft after French players Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr were selected by Atlanta and Washington with the top two picks.
Sheppard said he'd dreamed of this moment since he was a little kid. His big night was made even more special by having his parents Jeff and Stacey Sheppard, who also both played at Kentucky, there with him. He turned 20 on Monday.
“It’s my mom’s birthday today,” he said. “So that’s an awesome thing to celebrate as well.”
Sheppard averaged 12.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.5 steals while appearing in 33 games for the Wildcats. He shot 52.1% from 3-point range and made 83.1% of his free throws. He was the only player in the nation last season to have at least 145 assists, 80 steals and make at least 75 3-pointers.
Sheppard became the second player in school history to have at least 80 steals in a season despite starting just five games. It’s the 17th consecutive year that Kentucky has had at least one player selected in the NBA draft.
“Our evaluation was that Reed has a very special skillset that gives him a chance to be special in the NBA,” Stone said.
At 6-foot-2 and 182 pounds, Sheppard is among the smallest players in this year's draft, but is also thought by many draft analysts to be the best shooter.
Sheppard is the latest high draft pick to join the rebuilding Rockets in recent years. They took Amen Thompson fourth last year after adding Jabari Smith Jr. with the third pick in 2022 and Jalen Green second in 2021.
Stone was asked how he thinks Sheppard will fit with his new team.
“He can really shoot and he can really pass, so players like that fit in every offense,” he said.
The Rockets missed the playoffs for a fourth straight season this year but made a significant jump in their first year under coach Ime Udoka after adding veterans Dillon Brooks and Fred VanVleet. Houston went 41-41 after winning just 17, 20 and 22 games in the previous three seasons.
“I’m super excited,” Sheppard said. “They have a really good thing going in Houston. Coach is really good. They have Jalen. They have a bunch of really young athletic guys and we’ll be able to play fast and it’s going to be fun.”
He is looking forward to playing with VanVleet, a fellow undersized guard who will be entering his ninth season in the NBA.
“The biggest thing is just going in and learning,” he said. “They have guys like Fred VanVleet that I’ll be able to learn from. Just going in with an open mind, ready to learn, ready to do whatever it takes to win and just compete.”
Stone believes VanVleet will help Sheppard, just as he aided many players on the roster in his first year in Houston last season.
“I think that’s an invaluable experience,” Stone said. “Fred was amazing for all of our players last year, even the veterans. Fred's probably the most professional and toughest NBA player I’ve ever been around in 20 years in this league. So I think it’s a blessing for Reed to come into this situation.”
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Reed Sheppard walks the red carpet before the NBA basketball draft, Wednesday, June 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Reed Sheppard, right, greets NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being selected third overall by the Houston Rockets during they first round of the NBA basketball draft, Wednesday, June 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
NANTERRE, France (AP) — One year after a French teenager with North African origins was killed by police — a shooting that sparked shock and days of rioting across France — his mother led a silent march Saturday to pay homage to her son.
It comes at a politically fraught time. Hate speech is blighting the campaign for snap parliamentary elections taking place this weekend, and an anti-immigration party that wants to boost police powers to use their weapons, and has historic ties to racism and antisemitism is leading in the polls.
Several hundred family members, friends and supporters gathered in the Paris suburb of Nanterre to remember 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, who was shot dead at point-blank range by a police officer at a traffic check on June 27, 2023.
Within hours of his death, Merzouk, a delivery driver from a working-class neighborhood, became a symbol. For many across France, he was the embodiment of young French Black and North African men who, studies show, face police checks and discrimination more frequently than their white counterparts.
At Sunday's march, his mother Mounia spoke to the crowd then broke off in tears. Friends wore white t-shirts with Merzouk’s photo, and fellow residents of his housing project held a banner reading “Justice for Nahel.” The march ended at the spot where he was killed, and an imam sang and read a prayer.
There was no visible police presence, though organizers of the march recruited guards to ensure security for the event. Merzouk's mother asked politicians to stay away, to avoid politicking or tensions the day before France’s parliamentary elections.
On Sunday, French voters will cast ballots in the first round of snap elections for the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, that could lead to the country’s first far-right government since the World War II Nazi occupation.
French opinion polls suggest the National Rally party could dominate the next parliament after the July 7 second round and get the prime minister’s job. In that scenario, Centrist President Emmanuel Macron would retain the presidency until 2027 but in a sharply weakened role.
“This march, happening now, it is a powerful symbol," said Assa Traore, who has been fighting for justice since her brother Adama died in the custody of French police in 2016.
“It means that history can’t write itself without us. We, from the working-class neighborhoods, are the firsthand victims of these elections. We realized, from an early stage, that the National Rally and far-right parties were a danger for our country and will weaken it," said the 39-year-old with Malian roots who will march alongside Merzouk’s family.
Merzouk's death, which was captured on video, stirred up long-simmering tensions between police and young people in housing projects and disadvantaged suburbs, many of whom are French-born youth with immigrant family backgrounds. Fueled by TikTok, riots spread with unprecedented speed before a mass police crackdown. The unrest caused, according to French authorities, more than $1 billion in damage.
The officer who fired the shot cited self-defense, and an extreme-right figure started a crowdfunding campaign for the policeman that drew $1.6 million before being shut down.
Citing security concerns, notably in housing projects and other impoverished areas in French suburbs or “banlieues,” the far-right National Rally wants to give a specific new legal status to police. If police officers use their arms during an intervention, they would be presumed to have acted in self-defense. Currently police officers have the same legal status as all French citizens and have to prove they acted in self-defense.
The left-wing coalition New Popular Front, meanwhile, wants to ban the use of some police weapons and dismantle a notoriously tough police unit.
“People fear the victory of the National Rally. But, we, people from working-class neighborhoods, are afraid every day that our sons, brothers, or husbands will be killed. Racism and racial profiling are our daily life," Traore said.
Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.
Follow AP's coverage of elections worldwide at https://apnews.com/hub/global-elections/
FILE - Flowers lay at the tomb of Nahel Merzouk on July 5, 2023 in a cemetery in Nanterre, a Paris suburb. One year after the French teenager with North African origins was killed by police, a shooting that sparked shock and days of rioting across France, his mother is leading a silent march Saturday, June 29, 2024 to pay homage to her son. (AP Photo/Cara Anna, File)
