After national title, the star Gators move on to NBA
In the shimmering theater of March Madness, 2025 saw a resurrection: Florida Gators basketball, long written off as merely a footnote since its Billy Donovan heyday, stormed the stage with a vengeance. Coach Todd Golden, still relatively young compared to his contemporaries but already radiating the controlled fury of a sideline savant, orchestrated a masterclass in resilience.
His Gators did what most believed impossible: they clawed back from double-digit deficits against the game’s most ironclad defenses and delivered, again and again, when the moment demanded nerves of tungsten. The result? A third national title after a 65-63 survival gauntlet against Houston, a game that will go down in history as one of the most gripping national championship games ever played.
But championships don’t simply add banners—they forge futures. And no program proved a more fertile ground for NBA-bound transformation than this Florida squad. But which players will be making the step up to the big time next term? Let’s take a look.
Walter Clayton Jr.
One only needs to look at next season’s NBA betting odds to see just how desperate the Washington Wizards are for a bright spark to turn their fortunes around. The latest NBA betting at Bovada odds currently make the capital city outfit a whopping +100000 for the Larry O’Brien next season, the joint longest of anybody in the league. Luckily, for them, they may well have found their bright start in the form of Walter Clayton Jr.
Look beneath headline acts, and you will find a player whose grown-man poise in chaos turned dreams into reality. Walter Clayton Jr. was that nucleus. His numbers, dazzling even under ruthless scrutiny – 18.3 points, 4.2 assists, with a sniper’s 38.6% touch from deep – painted only half the picture. What statistics failed to measure: the precision with which Clayton gripped the tempo of a contest about to careen out of control, or the ice in his blood that surfaced with the season on the line.
It was he who authored the Final Four’s closing stanza—earning the Most Outstanding Player award—by seizing the championship’s final defensive stand. ESPN’s draft experts noted, “Clayton delivers not just in high-leverage moments, but in the heartbeat lulls where leadership reveals itself.” Coach Golden declared of his floor general, “No one in America, in this moment, commands the game like Walter.”
How will Clayton Do after Gators?
Washington, whose journey in recent years has lurched from rebuild to rinse and repeat, found not just value but identity at pick No. 18. The Wizards have been the NBA’s cautionary tale for post-John Wall drift: dazzling on some nights, aimless on more, clutch only when the calendar is benign. Last season, they propped up the entire Eastern Conference, winning just 18 games all season, the second-worst record in the entire league behind the Utah Jazz.
Is this the turning point for Washington? If history is a barometer, championships are won, and empires revived, on the backs of superstars who transcend stats. Clayton, forged in Gainesville’s crucible, is precisely that harbinger.
Alijah Martin
Every title team needs its battering ram—a player whose willingness to bleed for each possession cracks open tight contests. For Florida, Alijah Martin was that relentless pulse. Through 14.8 points per game and defensive acrobatics that routinely flipped opposing strategies, his signature moments defined the Gators’ survival instinct. None stood taller than his dead-eyed free throws in the dying seconds of the AlamoDome showpiece against Houston, a microcosm of his icy resolve.
Martin’s leadership was no mirage; the Gators’ staff cited his “auxiliary focus” as both shield and spear in adversity’s gale. When experts profiled his draft trajectory, they underlined this: Martin, on or off-ball, dictated the mood of the room—and the temperature of the contest.
The Toronto Raptors currently find themselves in no man’s land: too restless to rebuild, too raw to contend, and forever in search of their next foundational piece. They selected Martin at No. 39, and he now steps into a culture renowned for mining defensive versatility and giving second-rounders space to bloom. The playbook is familiar: begin as an assignment-bound stopper, carve minutes on the second unit, and, if that streaking jumper continues its upward arc, force the coach’s hand in closing time.
Like OG Anunoby before him, Martin’s ascent will be measured not just by counting stats, but by his ability to shape outcomes quietly in the margins. In Toronto’s shadowlands, he has every tool to become the ignition spark for the franchise’s transformation.
Will Richard
Grand finales rarely belong to the quietest hands, but Will Richard subverted that logic. His 18 points in the unforgiving first half of the National Championship game kept the Gators within striking distance. He wouldn’t find the net again, but his points ensured that he was his team’s top scorer on the night, and that was enough to secure the Natty against all odds.
The script then took a Silicon Valley twist, but Will Richard’s story remains pure Gainesville steel. Memphis initially pulled the trigger at 56, but Golden State—ever opportunistic—moved swiftly to secure Richard in a draft-night trade. The Warriors, a franchise at a crossroads, are searching for fresh blood to invigorate their aging championship core. With one-third of the Steph-Klay-Draymond trident now gone, playoff contention still flickers.
Richard enters a system that reveres floor spacing, unselfish movement, and steely poise—precisely the traits he honed at Florida. The Warriors need young legs and reliable defense around their shooters. Richard’s ability to knock down open threes, defend multiple positions, and avoid the limelight is tailor-made for Steve Kerr’s symphonic offense. There’s no guarantee of minutes—competition is fierce and the margin for error thin—but his adaptability and willingness to do the dirty work signal real staying power.
