South Carolina’s GG Jackson says he’s declaring for NBA Draft
South Carolina star freshman GG Jackson has made a decision for his future.
The 6-foot-9 forward announced Friday in an Instagram Live video that he will declare the NBA Draft.
“A lot of people want to know if I’m staying or if I’m going, and USC definitely helped me a lot,” Jackson said in the video. “I feel like it helped mature me. There were a lot of ups and downs. I went through a little something something with the coaches and all that, so that definitely helped me mentally. And now I’m declaring for the NBA Draft — just like that.”
Jackson will forego his remaining college eligibility, according to an official USC statement on the decision. Jackson is projected as a mid- to late-first-round pick in recent mock drafts, but he has time to build his stock before the draft in June.
Jackson is the seventh player expected to leave the Gamecocks from the 2022-23 roster.
The others include Ja’Von Benson, Tre-Vaughn Minott, Chico Carter Jr., Daniel Hankins-Sanford and walk-on Ford Cooper — all of whom entered the transfer portal. Forward Hayden Brown exhausted his eligibility after playing one season as a Citadel transfer. With two incoming signees, the Gamecocks have five open scholarships to play with during transfer portal season.
A Columbia native who starred for Ridge View High School, Jackson has been in the national spotlight for years and ranked as the No. 1 player in the 2024 class before reclassifying to the Class of 2023. Jackson created a stir in the basketball world when he decommitted from the North Carolina Tar Heels and flipped to first-year USC coach Lamont Paris and the hometown Gamecocks.
Despite being the youngest player in the country, the 18-year-old Jackson led the Gamecocks in scoring and finished ninth in the SEC with 15.4 points per game, and he added 5.9 rebounds per game.
Jackson also drew headlines for a handful of immature moments, including an Instagram Live rant that prompted Paris to pull Jackson from the starting lineup for a three-game stretch. Jackson did finish the season on a strong note, however, scoring a game-high 24 points in the Gamecocks’ season-ending loss to Ole Miss in the SEC tournament.
“This is a very exciting day for GG and his family as they begin preparing for the next chapter in his career,” said Paris in the school’s release. “I, too, am incredibly excited for GG and all that lies ahead for him. GG is and will always be a Gamecock, and I could not be more supportive of his decision to declare for the NBA Draft.”
This story was originally published March 24, 2023 at 9:29 AM.
