Former Net Rondae Hollis-Jefferson Wants to Return to the NBA

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who played for the Brooklyn Nets from 2015-19, believes that he should be back in the NBA.

“I know everyone knows how hard I work, how much I care about basketball,” he said in an exclusive interview to HoopsHype. “Just one of those days sitting and just thinking about the game, thinking about the highs and lows, and just wanting to be on that big stage and really, really wanting to be closer to home, to be closest to my kids. It's one thing for them to take a max five-hour flight to, say, California, versus a 20-hour travel day to Asia or somewhere else.” 

Hollis-Jeferson was the No. 23 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. He spent two seasons at Arizona before being selected by the Portland Trail Blazers and subsequently being traded to the Nets. In 234 games with Brooklyn, Hollis-Jefferson averaged 9.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.4 turnovers and 1.6 ‘stocks’ per game.

The now-30-year-old reflected on his experience with the Nets. The team, at the time, was trying to rebuild. Now, Hollis-Jefferson is looking for a training camp (Exhibit 10) deal.

“We were a young group of guys, and I think at the time I was in that kind of state where it was like, they don't really know where to put me at,” Hollis-Jefferson said. “They don't know whether to play me on the ball. They don't know whether to play me off the ball in a dunk or spot. So I think them trying to figure that out in the stages of rebuilding kind of took away from really shining that light on me. But again, at the end of the day, it's about, like, knowing your role. I didn't establish my role and really, like, locked into it.”