Kentucky’s Antonio Reeves a 2nd-round pick by Magic, traded to Pelicans in 2024 NBA draft

Former Kentucky basketball star Antonio Reeves was chosen in the second round by the Orlando Magic with the 47th overall pick and traded to the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA draft on Thursday.

Reeves was the third former Kentucky player chosen in this year’s draft, following Reed Sheppard (third overall to the Houston Rockets) and Rob Dillingham (eighth to the San Antonio Spurs before being traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves) in Wednesday’s first round.

Reeves was the 50th draft pick from UK who played during the John Calipari era.

Reeves, from Chicago, scored 2,350 points and connected on 306 3-pointers during his college career, which also included three seasons at Illinois State.

As a Wildcat, Reeves averaged 17.2 points with 164 total 3-pointers over his two seasons. He was UK’s leading scorer at 20.2 points in 2023-24, which was the highest scoring average by any player in the John Calipari era. Reeves made 51.2% from the field, 44.7% from 3-point range and 86.3% from the free-throw line — all career bests.

In two seasons with UK, Reeves scored 1,155 points which is the second-most in a two-year span in the history of the program. The most points in that span as a Wildcat was 1,213 by Bill Spivey.