Auburn basketball: Jared Harper balls out in debut NY G-league game

Auburn basketball superstar Jared Harper has bounced around the NBA with different contracts and teams, but for the 2021 season, he’ll be playing with the Westchester Knicks, the G-League affiliate of the New York Knicks.

Also on the WC Knicks is Bryce Brown, who was previously Harper’s teammate for three years on the Plains. The pair is part of the famous Final Four team of the 2018-2019 season and were major players on the team for the time they were there.

Jared Harper made the decision to forgo his senior season at Auburn and declare for the 2019 NBA Draft. He went undrafted, but played for the Phoenix Suns in the summer league and eventually signed a two-way contract with the team.

He was waived from the Suns in March of last year, but in November he was picked up by the Westchester Knicks and signed a new two-way contract.

The Westchester Knicks played their debut game against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the G-League affiliate of the Indiana Pacers. The Knicks shot 40 percent from behind the arc, led by Jared Harper’s 4-5 shooting.

Although the lead went back and forth between the teams all night, the Knicks came back late in the fourth quarter to go on a 6-0 run, finished by a fantastic Jared Harper fast break.

Jared Harper ended the night with a total of 31 points and 10 assists, and his three-point shooting was a major factor in keeping the WC Knicks in the game. The final score was 125-120, and Harper’s performance was definitely enough to get people’s attention.

His own team tweeted at the New York Knicks to emphasize how incredible Harper’s dunk was:

Jared Harper proves that big things can come in small packages, and also that being 5’10” clearly does not mean that dunking on someone is out of the question. If this former Auburn basketball favorite can drop 31 in the home opener, there’s no telling what’s in store for the rest of his season.