Dante Exum is a professional Australian basketball player of American descent. The point guard was voted fifth overall by Utah Jazz in the 2014 NBA Draft right out of high school after impressing the scouts. He wants to build on the success of legendary players like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Tim Duncan, who also came straight from high school to the league and dominated the game for years.
Who is Dante Exum? Bio
Dante Exum was born in Melbourne, Australia, on July 13, 1995, the son of American parents who had emigrated to the country. Around the age of five, Exum was introduced to basketball by his father, and within a few years, he showed so much interest and progress in the sport that the family began to see it as a career choice for him.
Exum was enrolled at Lake Ginninderra Secondary College in Canberra while playing as a junior in the Keilor Basketball Association. During this time he also attended the Australian Institute of Sport. In his final year of high school, Exum earned a place at the Nike Hoop Summit. He played for the World Junior Select team that beat the USA. He then went back to school and helped Lake Ginninderra win the 2014 Australian National High School Basketball Championship.
After these exploits, a number of college programs were interested in bringing Exum to the United States to attend college before he finally made it to the league. However, the player decided not to go to college and instead chose the 2014 NBA Draft where he was selected by Utah Jazz with the fifth overall selection.
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Dante Exum came to Utah for the NBA Summer League 2014 where he averaged 7.2 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.4 steals in 5 games. He then made his debut in the season opener of Jazz against the Houston Rockets, where he scored 5 points, 1 assist, and 1 steal. On January 22, 2015, he scored a 15-point game against the Milwaukee Bucks and on April 1, 2015, a 12-point game against the Denver Nuggets. At the end of the season, Dante Exum averaged 4.8 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 2.4 assists in 82 games in his rookie year.
The following season, Exum came to Jazz for a game in the NBA Summer League 2015 before meeting the Australian national team. Unfortunately, during this time, Exum suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in his left knee, which ended his season prematurely. Dante spent the entire regular season 2015-16 on the sidelines before returning to the regular-season opener 2016-17. This season he split his time between Jazz and NBA D-League subsidiary Salt Lake City Stars when he returned to his full form. In 66 games he averaged 6.2 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 1.7 assists.
In the 2017-18 season, Dante Exum suffered a shoulder injury that required surgery. He spent the beginning of the season on the sidelines before returning in March 2018 with a 10-point effort against the Phoenix Suns.
Family – Parents
Dante Exum owes his outstanding sporting abilities to his parents, Cecil and Desiree Exum. Desiree was a high school athletics star who attended the University of North Carolina. His father, Cecil, who also attended the same university, was a professional basketball player who first played college basketball under the legendary Taar Heels head coach Dean Smith and alongside the Basketball Hall of Famers James Worthy and Michael Jordan. He was on the team that won the 1982 NCAA championship.
After graduating in 1984, Cecil was drafted by the Denver Nuggets with the 194th overall but never managed to play a game in the NBA. He later decided to move to Australia in 1989, where he played in the Australian National Basketball League for teams such as the North Melbourne Giants, the Melbourne Tigers, and the Geelong Supercats. In his seven-year NBL playing career, Cecil Exum averaged 10.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game.
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Today, both parents serve as very close advisors to their son, who wants the world to remember the family name, Exum. Another member of the family who does the same job is Dante’s twin sister Tierra, who is considered an international gymnast. The twins have an older brother named Jamaar.
His Height and Weight
Dante Exum’s height is listed at 6 feet 6 inches or 1.98 m, making him one of the tall point guards to play in the NBA where the average height of players in that position is about 6 feet 3 inches or 1.93 m. His weight is further listed at 190 pounds or 86 kg.
