N'Faly Dante (born 19 October 2001) is a Malian

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player for the

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA) ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA), on a

two-way contract A two-way contract is a professional sports contract that stipulates that an athlete's salary is dependent upon the league in which the athlete is assigned to play. This is opposed to a one-way contract that would pay the same salary regardless o ...

with the

Rio Grande Valley Vipers The Rio Grande Valley Vipers are an American professional basketball team of the NBA G League based in Edinburg, Texas, and are affiliated with the Houston Rockets. The Vipers play their home games at the Bert Ogden Arena. The Vipers have won f ...

of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is a professional basketball league in North America that serves as the Minor league#Basketball, developmental league of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The league comprises 31 teams; as of ...

. He played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for the

Oregon Ducks The Oregon Ducks are the College sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Oregon, located in Eugene, Oregon, Eugene. The Ducks compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCA ...

. He was a five-star recruit who attended Sunrise Christian Academy in

Bel Aire, Kansas Bel Aire is a city in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States, and a suburb of Wichita. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 8,262. History Bel Aire was founded in January 1955 when a group of local residents petitioned th ...

High school career

Dante attended Sunrise Christian Academy in

. In his junior season, he averaged 16 points, nine rebounds, and three assists per game, leading his team to a 22–6 record and its first GEICO Nationals appearance.

Recruiting

Dante was a consensus five-star recruit, one of the best centers in his class, and the number one recruit from Kansas. On 13 August 2019, in a letter addressed to his mother on ''

The Players' Tribune ''The Players' Tribune'' is a new media platform that produces daily sports conversation and publishes first-person stories from professional athletes. The platform was founded by former professional Major League Baseball player Derek Jeter in ...

'', he announced his reclassification to the 2019 class and committed to play college basketball for

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

College career

On 15 October 2019, Dante was ruled ineligible to start the 2019–20 season because the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA) missed his clearance date. He reenrolled at the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

on 14 December. Dante made his debut for the Ducks on 18 December, scoring 11 points in an 81–48 win over

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

. On 18 January 2020, Dante injured his knee in a game against

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

and missed several weeks. On 9 December 2020, Dante scored a career-high 22 points in an 87-66 win over

Florida A&M Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. ...

. On 19 December, he was ruled out for the season with a torn ACL. Dante averaged 8.2 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, shooting 65.6 percent from the field as a sophomore.

Professional career

After going undrafted in the

2024 NBA draft The 2024 NBA draft was the 78th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual NBA draft, draft. Unlike recent years, the 2024 draft took place over two nights. This was the first NBA draft to be held on multiple nights since the draft ...

, Dante signed a

with the

on 9 July 2024. On 3 March 2025, Dante made his NBA debut in a 137-128 defeat against the

Oklahoma City Thunder The Oklahoma City Thunder are an American professional basketball team based in Oklahoma City. The Thunder compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (NBA), Northwest Division of the Western Confer ...

, recording 10 points, nine rebounds, two blocks, and one assist.

National team career

With Mali at the

2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship The 2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship (Spanish: 2016 FIBA Campeonato Mundial Sub-17) was the 4th edition of the FIBA Under-17 World Championship, the biennial international men's youth basketball championship contested by the U17 national tea ...

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

, Spain, Dante averaged 2.8 points and 4.3 rebounds in 9.2 minutes per game, as his team finished in 15th place. He was named to the roster for Mali at the

2017 FIBA Under-16 African Championship The 2017 FIBA U16 African Championship, alternatively the 5th Afrobasket U16, was an international basketball competition held in Vacoas-Phoenix, Mauritius from 13–22 July 2017. It served as the qualifier for the 2018 FIBA Under-17 Basketball ...

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

, where his team captured the gold medal, but he did not record playing time.

Career statistics

NBA

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Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, 3 , , 0 , , 15.3 , , .750 , , .000 , , .800 , , 5.7 , , .7 , , .3 , , 1.7 , , 7.3 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 3 , , 0 , , 15.3 , , .750 , , .000 , , .800 , , 5.7 , , .7 , , .3 , , 1.7 , , 7.3

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 12 , , 0 , , 13.6 , , .627 , , — , , .400 , , 2.8 , , .6 , , .9 , , .6 , , 5.8 , - , 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 ...

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, 6 , , 6 , , 17.7 , , .656 , , — , , .438 , , 5.8 , , .2 , , 1.5 , , 1.2 , , 8.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

, 32 , , 27 , , 20.0 , , .675 , , — , , .588 , , 6.3 , , .7 , , .7 , , 1.0 , , 8.1 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 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;",

, 31 , , 30 , , 26.2 , , .614 , , — , , .617 , , 8.4 , , 1.1 , , 1.1 , , 1.4 , , 13.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , style="text-align:left;",

, 22 , , 21 , , 31.5 , , .695 , , — , , .613 , , 9.2 , , 1.6 , , 1.7 , , 1.9 , , 17.0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 103 , , 84 , , 23.4 , , .654 , , — , , .591 , , 7.1 , , 1.0 , , 1.1 , , 1.3 , , 11.3

References

External links

Oregon Ducks bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dante, Nfaly 2001 births Living people 21st-century Malian sportsmen Basketball players from Bamako Centers (basketball) Houston Rockets players Malian expatriate basketball people in the United States Malian men's basketball players Oregon Ducks men's basketball players Rio Grande Valley Vipers players Undrafted NBA players