Brady Reece Manek (born September 4, 1998) is an American professional basketball player for the Perth Wildcats of the National Basketball League (NBL). He played college basketball for the Oklahoma Sooners and the

North Carolina Tar Heels The North Carolina Tar Heels are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to individuals from the state of North Carolina, the ''Tar Heel ...

Early life and high school career

Manek was born and raised in Edmond, Oklahoma and started playing basketball from a young age against older competition. He often played against future college teammate Trae Young while attending elementary school. His family moved to

Harrah, Oklahoma Harrah is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. Located east of downtown Oklahoma City, Harrah had a population of 6,360 people as of the 2018 Census. The first settler of the a ...

, where he began playing

varsity Varsity may refer to: *University, an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in various academic disciplines Places *Varsity, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Calgary, Alberta, Canada * Varsity Lakes ...

basketball for Harrah High School in his freshman season. Between his freshman and sophomore years, Manek greatly improved his dunking ability. He was named Little All-City Player of the Year by '' The Oklahoman'' in each of his final two seasons. As a senior, Manek averaged 24.3 points and 11.6 rebounds, leading Harrah to the state quarterfinals. Rated either a three-star and four-star recruit by several services, he committed to play college basketball for

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

after his sophomore season of high school.

College career

Oklahoma

As a freshman at Oklahoma, Manek averaged 10.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game in 32 appearances. He and Trae Young were the highest scoring freshman duo in the NCAA Division I. Manek recorded 59 three-pointers, the fourth-most by a freshman in school history. In his sophomore season, he made national headlines for his resemblance to Larry Bird. He averaged 12.2 points and 5.9 rebounds per game as a sophomore and was an All- Big 12 Honorable Mention selection. On January 18, 2020, Manek scored a career-high 31 points and seven three-pointers, while reaching 1,000 career points, in an 83–63 win over

TCU TCU may stand for: Education * Tanzania Commission for Universities, regulatory body for Universities in Tanzania * Texas Christian University, a private university in Fort Worth, Texas ** TCU Horned Frogs, the athletic programs of the school * Tok ...

. Manek scored 30 points on February 1, in an 82–69 victory over Oklahoma State. As a junior, he averaged 14.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game, earning Third Team All-Big 12 honors. In his senior season, Manek averaged 10.8 points and five rebounds per game. Following the season, he transferred to North Carolina.

North Carolina

After four years at Oklahoma, Manek transferred to North Carolina as a graduate student. He took advantage of the extra year of NCAA eligibility granted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to play in Chapel Hill. After being used primarily as the sixth man for the first part of the season, Manek was inserted to the starting lineup following an injury to Dawson Garcia. Manek's elevation to the starting five coincided with a turnaround in the Tar Heels' fortunes, as the team was able to play their way to a tie for second place in the ACC regular season standings and the third seed in the conference's tournament. He scored 20 points in the Tar Heels' 94–81 victory in the regular-season finale against Duke. Following the regular season, Manek was named Honorable Mention All-ACC. In the first round of the NCAA tournament against Marquette, Manek scored a season-high 28 points, three shy of his career high. He scored 26 points in just 28 minutes of action against Baylor in the second round of the tournament. Manek was ejected from the game following a

flagrant 2 In basketball, a flagrant foul is a personal foul that involves excessive or violent contact that could injure the fouled player. A flagrant foul may be unintentional or purposeful; the latter type is also called an "intentional foul" in the Nati ...

foul on Baylor's Jeremy Sochan. At the time, the Tar Heels held a 25-point lead. Following the ejection, Baylor was able to come back and force overtime, but the Tar Heels held on and advanced to the Sweet 16, 93–86. On April 1, 2022, Manek was named as the recipient of the Riley Wallace Player of the Year Award, given to the top transfer player in college basketball.

Professional career

Perth Wildcats (2022–present)

After going undrafted in the

2022 NBA draft The 2022 NBA draft (branded as the 2022 NBA Draft presented by State Farm for sponsorship reasons), the 76th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual draft, was held on June 23, 2022, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The ...

, Manek joined the

Charlotte Hornets The Charlotte Hornets are an American professional basketball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Hornets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division, and pla ...

for the

2022 NBA Summer League The 2022 NBA Summer League, also branded as the NBA 2K23 Summer League 2022, was an off-season competition held by the National Basketball Association (NBA) primarily at the Thomas and Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada on the campus ...

. On August 1, 2022, he signed with the Perth Wildcats in Australia for the

2022–23 NBL season The 2022–23 NBL season was the 45th season of the National Basketball League since its establishment in 1979. A total of ten teams contested in the 2022–23 season. Australian broadcast rights to the season are held by ESPN in the second se ...

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

, , 32 , , 26 , , 23.7 , , .466 , , .383 , , .600 , , 5.2 , , .5 , , .3 , , .7 , , 10.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, , 34 , , 34 , , 27.8 , , .469 , , .358 , , .764 , , 5.9 , , .8 , , .7 , , .7 , , 12.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, , 31 , , 31 , , 30.5 , , .453 , , .380 , , .779 , , 6.2 , , .9 , , .5 , , 1.2 , , 14.4 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, , 25 , , 20 , , 25.1 , , .422 , , .375 , , .767 , , 5.0 , , .8 , , .5 , , .8 , , 10.8 , - class="sortbottom" , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;", North Carolina , , 39 , , 27 , , 30.4 , , .493 , , .403 , , .697 , , 6.1 , , 1.8 , , .6 , , .7 , , 15.1 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , , 161 , , 138 , , 27.7 , , .465 , , .382 , , .733 , , 5.7 , , 1.0 , , .5 , , .8 , , 12.7

Personal life

Manek's older brother, Kellen, was his basketball teammate at Harrah High School for three years and played for Oral Roberts and Southeastern Oklahoma State.

References

External links

NBL profileNorth Carolina Tar Heels bioOklahoma Sooners bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manek, Brady 1998 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Australia American men's basketball players Basketball players from Oklahoma North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball players Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball players Perth Wildcats players Power forwards (basketball) Small forwards Sportspeople from Edmond, Oklahoma