Elijah Bryant may be headed back to the United States.
The former BYU basketball star is reportedly expected to leave his current team, Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli League, to join the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, as first reported by Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia and Sport5’s Roi Cohen.
Eurohoop’s Stefen Djordjevic reported the Bucks are attempting to have Bryant join their team for the remainder of the 2020-21 season, but Bryant doesn’t have a buyout clause, so a negotiation would be necessary, with Milwaukee being able to spend up to $750,000 for a buyout.
“It should be noted that Maccabi, after not advancing to the EuroLeague playoffs, is on the hunt for the domestic titles and Bryant is an important piece which they’re not willing to give up easily as it will be hard to replace him at this point in the season,” Djordjevic wrote.
Bryant, who left BYU following his junior season in 2018, played NBA Summer League ball for the Bucks back in 2019. He averaged 14.2 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists in that stint. He has played for Tel Aviv since 2019.
The Bucks currently sit third in the NBA’s Eastern Conference standings with a 41-24 record. Milwaukee has another Utah tie, Bountiful High and Utah State’s Sam Merrill, on its roster. Merrill was the last pick in the 2020 NBA draft and is averaging 7.4 minutes, 3.1 points, 1.0 rebounds and 0.7 assists per game.