Quinn Ellis: The Sheffield Sharks academy graduate who could get selected in the NBA draft

Quinn Ellis, a 21-year-old point guard who is currently playing professionally in the top league in Italy, has declared himself eligible for the NBA draft.

He has spent the last few weeks on a whirlwind tour of the United States, being hosted for workouts at 15 of the 30 teams in North America’s world renowned league.

Ellis, who learned the game in the Sheffield Sharks’ academy and comes from a family steeped in British basketball history, is as high as the 88th best prospect according to some experts in this year’s draft class. Because NBA teams only have 15-man rosters, just 58 players will be selected in this year’s draft in Brooklyn on Wednesday and Thursday night.

There are further supplemental picks where teams can select a player and send him back to Europe or keep them in America playing for their minor-league affiliates while retaining their playing rights.

But even if he gets overlooked this time around, he can still return to playing for Trentino in Italy and go back to America in a year’s time to try his hand at the NBA again.

Either way, it is a huge feather in the cap for Ellis, the grandson of the late Betty Codona who founded the Sheffield Hatters, and son of Vanessa Ellis, head coach of the Hatters and a long-time assistant of the Great Britain women’s team.

“I’ve said to him if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen, but he’s living his best life and really enjoying working out with teams in the top league in the world,” said Vanessa, who first introduced her son to the family game playing in mixed teams with the Hatters.

“He’s happy, which is the main thing, even if he says he’s never been as tired in his life, because he’s been all over America, from Portland to Brooklyn to Miami.”

Raised in Ecclesfield in north Sheffield, Ellis joined the Sharks academy when he was 11, playing with them all the way up to the age of 16.

He once told The Yorkshire Post of his family’s basketball heritage - his cousin Georgia Gayle players for the Hatters and Great Britain: “I guess I had basketball in the DNA. I was the youngest in the family, so everyone was telling me what I needed to do, so I just sat there smiling and listening.”

Ellis moved to Italy at 16 having decided against continuing his development in the British basketball academy or at an American preparatory school.

He spent four years with second-tier teams but stepped up to the top level with Trentino this past season, catching the eye with a number of game-winning shots in the domestic and EuroCup competitions.

For his mother, ever the basketball educator, the experience of the NBA will be a huge learning curve.

“It’s about getting known and getting your name out there,” she said. “If you’ve had a good workout hopefully they’ll follow your progress and if not this year it could be in the next couple of years.

“He’s mixing with these players and coaches and just seeing the game from a different point of view.”