One of the most intriguing prospects in this month’s NBA Draft is Maryland’s Diamond Stone. The 6-11 center declared for the NBA after his lone season in College Park. Projected as a late first-round/early second round draft pick, the Milwaukee (WI) native led the Terrapins to their first NCAA Sweet 16 appearance since 2003.
Despite only being a freshman, he was the team’s second leading scorer with 12.5 points per game this past season. His 56 blocks (2.0 bpg) for the year ranked third all-time in Maryland history for a freshman in a single season — that included an 8-block performance in February against Nebraska, the most for a Terrapin since 2006. In his Big Ten debut, Stone posted a double-double stat line of 39 points and 12 rebounds, setting the Maryland freshman single-game scoring record. It was also the first time a major-conference player finished with at least 35 points and 10 rebounds while coming off the bench since Joakim Noah did so in March of ’06
We hosted the soon-to-be NBAer at our New York City headquarters last month, where we had the opportunity to sit down with him for an extensive interview about his life, discussing everything from his development as a youth to his college career and now looking forward to hooping in the NBA.
Check out the video above. Thanks to James Miles (@thegreatmiles) for the camera work.
