Miye Oni

Olumiye Dimolu "Miye" Oni[1] (born August 4, 1997) is an American-Nigerian professional basketball player for Joventut Badalona of the Liga ACB.

After drawing more interest as a senior at Viewpoint, he committed to Yale, but admissions rules forced him to play an additional season of prep basketball at Suffield Academy before college.

[2] From a young age, he had aspirations to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and admired Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers.

He played for the junior varsity team in his freshman season, when he stood 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) and weighed 140 pounds (64 kg).

[4] He had a breakout final season for Viewpoint, averaging 18 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists and being named California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division 5AA player of the year.

After watching his highlight video in the spring of 2015, Yale head coach James Jones offered him, and Oni committed to play for the team on July 1, 2015.

[1] With Suffield, Oni averaged 17 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists and earned New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) Class A player of the year distinction.

[9] Oni made his debut for Yale on November 13, 2016, recording a team-high 24 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists in a 98–90 upset win over Washington.

[15][14] Entering the 2017–18 season, the Hartford Courant speculated that the Yale duo of Oni and Makai Mason could be "one of the top backcourts in the country.

[6] Oni made his junior season debut on November 9, 2018, scoring 16 points in a 76–59 win over California at the Pac-12 China Game held in Shanghai.

[26] He delivered another strong performance on March 1, when he scored 30 points—shooting 9-of-11 from the field—to help Yale defeat Cornell, 88–65, and clinch a spot in the 2019 Ivy league tournament.

Later in his rookie season, Oni began to get looked on to play for the Jazz, as injuries to Bojan Bogdanovic left a hole in the team heading into the NBA Bubble.

On August 7, 2020, Oni recorded his first start and scored his NBA career high 14 points and 7 rebounds for the Jazz in a loss to the San Antonio Spurs.

[35] Oni was called upon to play key minutes for the Jazz in the 2022 NBA Playoffs, notably matching up with Paul George of the Los Angeles Clippers.

[47] Oni was eligible to play for the Nigeria men's national basketball team at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo due to his mother being born there.

[29] He has been praised for his academic performance, with Yale assistant basketball coach Justin Simon saying, "To maintain his grades at the level he has—the guys respect his work ethic.

On a volunteer basis, Oni and Brandon Sherrod (his fellow Connecticut CASA ambassador) participated in an awareness-raising forum recorded on YouTube and documented in an October 2020 news story.

Oni (right) skies for a block in December 2018.