Rwandan-American prospect Nate Ament of the University of Tennessee basketball team went No.13 overall in the 2026 NBA Draft. He was picked in the first round Tuesday night by the Miami Heat, with his rights then traded to the Milwaukee Bucks.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced the 19-year-old's name at 9:31 pm ET (3:31 am Kigali Time). at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, live on ABC and ESPN.
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Ament, who was born in the United States to a Rwandan mother and an American father, is the joint-sixth-highest draftee in Tennessee history and is the program's top draftee since 2002, when Marcus Haislip went No.13 overall. He is also the ninth top-15 pick for the Volunteers, as well as the 13th in the first round and the 17th in the top 30.
The 58th player drafted out of Tennessee, Ament is the second player picked by the Miami Heat, following Josh Richardson (No.40 in 2015). The Bucks, who will receive Ament via trade, have also previously picked two prior Volunteers, in Haislip and Ernie Grunfeld (No.11 in 1977).
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In addition, Ament is Tennessee's sixth one-and-done freshman selected in the NBA Draft, including the fifth in head coach Rick Barnes' tenure and the fourth to go in the first round. He is the highest-drafted player of that group, six spots ahead of Tobias Harris, who went No.19 in 2011.
A native of Manassas, Virginia, Ament was the second player chosen from a Southeastern Conference (SEC) school and the 10th freshman to come off the board.
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Ament is the 36th NBA Draft choice to play for Barnes, who has had a total of 48 of his players reach the NBA across his 39 years as a head coach. Adding in his eight years as an assistant, Barnes has trained 55 future NBA players, including 42 draftees.
Barnes, who also attended the NBA Draft 2026, has now produced 14 NBA players at Tennessee, including 11 draft picks and five first-round selections. All of those have come in the last eight years (2019-26).
Ament dazzled in his lone season on Rocky Top, averaging 16.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.0 steal per game. He scored 584 points, the third-most by a Tennessee freshman, and started all 35 games in which he appeared.
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The 2.08m (93 kg) earned Second Team All-SEC accolades from both the media and the league's head coaches. An SEC All-Freshman Team and NABC First Team All-Central District honoree, he was one of five finalists for the Julius Erving Award and a finalist for the Kyle Macy Award.
This is the seventh time in the last eight years at least one Volunteer has been picked in the NBA Draft, including the sixth in a row. With the 2026 NBA Draft still incomplete, Tennessee will finish as one of no more than four schools to achieve the former feat and as one of no more than five to achieve the latter.
