Mavs Rookie OMax on Unique Path: 'Best Decision I Made!’

Dallas Mavericks rookie Olivier-Maxence Prosper took a unique route to get to the NBA, and now he'll have a chance to make an immediate difference in Big D.

Dalton Trigg | Jun 24, 2023

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Dallas Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks started reshaping their identity during Thursday night's NBA Draft by selecting two energetic and defensive-minded players in Duke's Dereck Lively II and Marquette's Olivier-Maxence Prosper.

Lively took more of a straight-line path to the NBA, as he was born and went to high school in Pennsylvania while starting his basketball journey. Prosper, on the other hand, was born in Canada and initially attended a school that didn't even have a basketball team before finding his way to Lake Forest Academy in Illinois. From there, Prosper transferred to the NBA Academy Latin America before going to college, and he says it's the best decision he's ever made.

"I always say, going to the NBA Academy in Latin America was one of the best decisions I made for my basketball career. Going down there was different, the different culture, but I embraced it all and it was an awesome time," Prosper said. "From all the people, my coaches to my teammates, having teammates from all over Latin America, and all the tournaments we played in and all the competition, I grew so much.

"I made brothers there, brothers from -- guys all over the world that you never thought you would meet but you meet them there. Just the entire experience helped me become a better player just because of the training we had supported by the NBA and also the competition that we played with and against."

After initially being pegged as a second-round pick, Prosper shot up the draft boards after exploding onto the scene at the NBA Combine. The Mavs traded Davis Bertans and the No. 10 pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for the No. 12 pick, which created a $17 million TPE. Dallas then used that trade exception to absorb Richaun Holmes from the Sacramento Kings with the No. 24 pick attached, which ended up in Prosper becoming a Maverick.

The Mavs are hoping Prosper's unique path helps him have an immediate impact as a rookie during the 2023-24 season. Given that Dallas had the 25th-ranked defense last season, OMax's contributions will definitely be needed.

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Published Jun 24, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.