Former Florida Gators' star Scottie Wilbekin has never had anything handed to him.
After a Freshman and Sophomore season in which he only had a bench role, Wilbekin was able to earn a starting job for his Junior campaign. As a first year starter, the six foot, two inch point guard averaged 9.1 points, 2.9 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 1.5 steals per game while leading the Gators to an Elite Eight appearance. In his Senior season, he would top the previous year by claiming SEC Player of the Year honors over the seventh pick in the ensuing draft Kentucky's Julius Randle and second round selection Tennessee's Jarnell Stokes. In addition, the Gainesville native would lead his hometown team to the Final Four for the first time since 2007.
Nevertheless his college accolades, Wilbekin went undrafted in the 2014 NBA Draft resulting in him playing for the Memphis Grizzlies and Philadelphia 76ers summer league teams before going to Queensland to play for the Cairns Taipans. With the Taipans, the Florida product's stats were much improved in contrast to his last season for Florida as he averaged 15.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.1 steals per game. From Cairns, the twenty-two year old signed a contract with AEK Athens for the rest of the 2014-2015 Greek Basket League Season prior to returning to the United States for a second chance to impress at NBA Summer League. This year he would not walk away as a free agent.
Wilbekin started his July as a member of Orlando White and he was able to lead them to an undefeated pool play record heading into the Orlando Summer League Championship. Afterwards he traveled to Las Vegas to be a part of the Philadelphia 76ers for the second straight Las Vegas Summer League. In "Sin City," the two time SEC All-Defensive Team selection played much better than in "City Beautiful" by averaging 14.4 points in 27 minutes per game, which caught the eye of Philadelphia's General Manager Sam Hinkie to sign him to a four year NBA contract.
Although no dollar amount has been connected to the agreement, Scottie Wilbeken is finally an NBA player and will be in the "City of Brotherly Love" when the upcoming season begins.