dragan bender was the youngest player to play in the nba as of october 26, 2016.
dragan bender was the youngest player to play in the nba as of october 26, 2016.
who was the youngest player to play in the nba as of october 26, 2016?
dragan bender
bullet::::- dragan bender would become the fifth 18-year-old rookie player to score at least 10 points in their regular season debuts in that age by scoring 10 points against the sacramento kings on october 26, 2016, with the other players on that list being jonathan bender, lebron james, dwight howard, and his teammate, devin booker. it'd also be the suns' second straight season in a row where an 18-year-old rookie scores 10 or more points to start out his career in the nba. furthermore, he would surpass both devin booker and amir johnson to become the sixth-youngest player in nba history to record 10 or more points in a game behind dwight howard, bill willoughby, lebron james, tracy mcgrady, andrew bynum, and kobe bryant. dragan bender would also join devin booker and giannis antetokounmpo as the only 18-year-old players to score 10 or more points at that age ever since the 2006-07 season.
2016–17 phoenix suns season
the youngest player to ever play in the nba was andrew bynum who played his first game at the age of 18 years and 6 days old. bynum, who was also the youngest player ever selected in the nba draft, went into the nba straight out of high school. jermaine o'neal and kobe bryant, both drafted in 1996, were the second- and third-youngest players. serbian darko miličić was the youngest player ever to play in an nba finals game. he played for the detroit pistons in game 3 of the 2004 finals at the age of 18 years and 356 days old. the pistons won the 2004 finals and miličić became the youngest player ever to win the nba championship, being only five days away from his 19th birthday at the time. there are currently 27 players who played in the nba before they turned 19. nineteen of them came to the league straight out of high school, while 6 of them are international players who never played basketball in the u.s. high schools or colleges before they entered the nba, and two more players ended up playing only a year of college before entering the nba.
list of oldest and youngest national basketball association players