Mikel Brown Jr. Selected No. 6 Overall by Nets in 2026 NBA Draft

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Mikel Brown Jr. didn't have to wait very long to hear his name called on draft night.

The Louisville point guard has been selected by the Brooklyn Nets with the No. 6 overall pick of the 2026 NBA Draft.

Brown is not only Louisville's first top-ten NBA Draft pick since 1996, when Samaki Walker went ninth overall to the Dallas Mavericks, he's their highest draft selection since the Minnesota Timberwolves took Felton Spencer at No. 6 overall in 1990. Brown is also the Cardinals' first NBA Draft selection overall since 2021, when David Johnson was picked by the Toronto Raptors with the No. 47 pick in the second round, and is UofL's 78th all-time NBA Draft selection.

When healthy, the 6-foot-5, 190-pound guard is one of the top playmakers in all of college basketball. He finished the season averaging 18.2 points, 4.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game, while shooting 41.0 percent from the field and 34.4 percent on three-point attempts. For his efforts, he took home Third-Team All-ACC honors, and was also named to the ACC's All-Rookie Team.

Back on Feb. 9, Brown etched his name into the Louisville record books, producing one of the best games ever played by a Cardinal. As part of a dominating 118-77 win over NC State, the guard finished with 45 points, setting the program and ACC record for most points by a freshman, and tying UofL's overall single-game scoring record (Wes Unseld - Dec. 1, 1967 vs. Georgetown College). He also hit 10 three-pointers in that game, which tied a Louisville single-game record as well (Reyne Smith - Jan. 21, 2025 at SMU).

However, it was a struggle for Brown to stay healthy. On Dec. 13 against Memphis, he suffered a lower back injury, which forced him to miss the next eight games. He re-aggravated it at North Carolina on Feb. 23, tried to give it a go in the next game against Clemson on Feb. 28 off the bench, but then would go on to miss the final six games of the year - including all four postseason games. Brown wound up playing only 21 games, 19 of which he started.

Prior to re-aggravating the injury, Brown had been playing some of the best basketball in the entire nation. Starting with his historic outing against NC State and ending with his final start of the season at UNC, he put together a five-game stretch where he averaged 29.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists, while also shooting 52.2 percent from the field and 54.0 percent on threes.

Coming out of high school, Brown was not only a consensus five-star prospect in the Class of 2025, he was the top-ranked point guard and No. 8 prospect in the cycle, according to the 247Sports Composite. With a composite rating of 0.9969, Brown is the second-highest rated prospect to ever commit to Louisville in the modern recruiting era, behind only Samardo Samuels' 0.9985 rating in the Class of 2008.

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