The former NBA player who wants to return to the league: "I should be there"

After going viral on NBA Twitter for a tweet defending his case to return to the league, veteran forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson spoke with Cyro Asseo (HoopsHype) about his desire to come back to the NBA.

"I think that, with the time I've spent in the NBA, it was very important for me to reflect and think about all the things I could have done differently, things that shaped me into the person I am today," commented Hollis-Jefferson. "I was sitting the other day thinking about everything. Where I am, how far I've come, the growth, the experiences, everything I've lived through. It was one of those days when my mind doesn't stop. And I told myself: 'Man, I should be in the NBA. Everyone knows how hard I work, how much basketball means to me.' That's where all that came from."

Selected in the first round of the 2015 draft, Hollis-Jefferson played 305 regular-season games between 2015 and 2021, spread across three teams. Although he has been out of the NBA for four years now, he has continued competing in professional leagues in Turkey, Puerto Rico, South Korea, the Philippines, and Lebanon.

At just 30 years old, he says that one of the main reasons he wants to return is to be closer to home. "I want to be on that big stage, and above all, I want to be closer to home, closer to my kids," he said. "It's not the same to have a five-hour flight to California as a twenty-hour trip to Asia or anywhere else."

More brief basketball news from around the world

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• Jeremy Woo (ESPN) has published a list of the 10 most interesting second-year players to follow in the 2025/26 season. It includes young talents like the current Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle, players returning from significant injuries like Nikola Topic (Thunder) and Jared McCain (Sixers), and others who could have a bigger role like Reed Sheppard (Rockets).

• Former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas was one of the six individuals detained on Wednesday, charged with organizing high-stakes illegal poker games at a Los Angeles mansion he owns, as reported by Associated Press. The full statement from the US Attorney's Office can be found on their official website.

• A court has found Lawrence Alexander Dority guilty of second-degree murder in the death of former NBA player Adreian Payne, as reported by Silas Morgan and Cristobal Reyes (Orlando Sentinel). Dority claimed self-defense, stating he believed Payne was reaching for a weapon, but the investigation determined that the victim was unarmed and posed no threat. Sentencing is scheduled for August 29.