6 days ago
- Business
- Belfast Telegraph
Northern Irish basketball star earns pre-draft workout with NBA team
The 22-year-old guard, who currently plays for college side the Charleston Cougars, will take part in the event in a bid to impress the Timberwolves' coaches ahead of the NBA Draft, which begins on June 25.
Fulton, the son of former Ireland international Adrian, started his career with St Malachy's College and Belfast Star in Northern Ireland before securing a move Stateside in 2020, joining the Winchendon School in Boston.
A switch to Lafayette University followed after securing a basketball scholarship and he would then move on to Charleston, whom he featured for in college basketball's annual 'March Madness' tournament last year.
Now he will get a shot at standing out in front of an franchise that only just missed out on going to the NBA Finals this year, losing the Western Conference Finals for the second year in a row, beaten by the Oklahoma City Thunder after missing out to the Dallas Mavericks a year ago.
Were he to break into the NBA then Fulton would follow in the footsteps of Dublin's Pat Burke, who played for the Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns in the early 2000s, while Susan Moran featured for the WNBA's New York Liberty in 2002.
Fulton could make history, however, as he would the first Irish-trained player to reach the NBA should be dress for a game at any point as Burke, while Dublin born, moved to Cleveland, Ohio when he was just three-years-old.
While he is not currently listed inside the top-100 expected draft picks, that does not mean the Belfast man could not forge a successful career for himself, with the likes of Artis Gilmore and Randy Smith (both 1971) having been drafted outside the top-100 and gone on to become All-Stars.
