Of course, he would've rather been drafted. It's every athlete's dream to hear his or her name called on draft night, no matter what sport they play.

But Syracuse native Nathan Knight said it was like living a dream just to be "in the mix" for the 2020 NBA Draft, four years after being a lightly-recruited, two-star forward out of Nottingham High School.

"Watching the Draft the way I got to watch it, with the equipment the NBA sent with the possibility of being drafted, is a culmination in itself," Knight said with a wide smile. "Just being able to do that was awesome."

What You Need To Know


  • Former Nottingham Bulldog Nathan Knight has agreed to a two-way contract with the NBA's Atlanta Hawks

  • Knight was a two-star recruit out of Nottingham HS in 2016 before going on to star at William & Mary

  • The 23-year old was sent TV equipment by the NBA for Wednesday night's draft, there to televise his reaction in case he was picked

  • Knight will likely spend most of this season with the Hawks' G-League affiliate in College Park, a suburb of Atlanta

Unfortunately, the TV equipment sent by the league was never used to get Knight's reaction to getting drafted, because 60 picks came and went, and his name never came up. However, if the cameras had been rolling just minutes after the draft ended, they would have captured a wild celebration when his agent called with an offer from the Atlanta Hawks.

"Getting that call, you just kind of lose track of time," remembered Knight from his hotel room Thursday night, shortly after touching down in Atlanta. "It still doesn't feel real. It was just, screaming, a lot of crying. I called my mother. It was just an experience you can't explain with words. It was amazing."

Knight insists he wasn't disappointed that he wasn't drafted, and he was excited to see his friends Elijah Hughes (39th to the Jazz) and Jordan Nwora (45th to the Bucks) get picked in the second round. The 23-year old said everyone has his own path to the NBA, and his is coming as a free-agent after agreeing to a two-way contract reportedly worth nearly $450,000.

The former William & Mary star said he worked out with the Hawks last summer while he was testing the waters after his junior season, and more recently he's had several good phone and zoom conversations with team staffers. That, in addition to his development into a dominant mid-major player, seems to have sealed the deal.

"I really enjoyed the conversations I had with the organization, and I feel like they enjoyed the conversations they had with me," he said. "The success I had in college, in conjunction with the kind of person I am, made me someone who Atlanta was willing to take a chance on, and I'm very grateful for that."

A two-way contract means Nathan is either the 16th or 17th player on the Hawks' 15-man roster, so it's likely he'll spend most of this season with the team's G-League affiliate, the College Park Skyhawks, located about 20 minutes south of downtown Atlanta. But, now that the former Bulldog has bulldogged his way into an NBA opportunity, Knight sounds determined to do everything he can to take advantage of it.

"I'm just really, really excited to put my hard hat on and get to work, to start making myself and my organization better," he said. "I think the biggest thing for me is just having that mindset, 'What can I do to help the organization, contribute to the organization?' Because, that's what I'm really focused on, being a contributor, being a giver, being someone who's two hundred and ten percent in everything I do."