Former Flyer headed to former UD coach’s team after being picked in NBA Draft

“Feeling great,” he said. “Blessed.”

Hours later, Brea had to be feeling even better as the Golden State Warriors selected him with the 11th pick of the second round, No. 41 overall, and then traded him to the Phoenix Suns, whose new general manager is former Dayton coach Brian Gregory.

On the ESPN broadcast, Brea was asked what it meant to him to have his parents, Stephan Brea and Mayra Villar, who gave him the nickname “Fuego,” by his side in the green room on the second night of the draft.

“I’m super happy for them to be able to experience this with me,” he said. “Just knowing all the sacrifices they made for me, it paid off.”

The Suns acquired another former Atlantic 10 Conference player, Saint Joseph’s guard Rasheer Fleming, with the first pick of the second round in a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Brea, a 6-foot-6 fourth-year guard from Washington Heights, N.Y., played four seasons at Dayton, graduating from UD in 2024. He’s the first Flyer to play four seasons at Dayton and then get drafted since Negele Knight, a second-round pick of the Suns in 1990.

Brea had a fifth season of eligibility because his freshman season, played during the pandemic in 2020-21, didn’t count against his eligibility. He transferred to Kentucky, where he played last season.

Brea ranks 69th in career scoring at UD with 889 points. He led the nation in 3-point shooting percentage in his final season at Dayton (100 of 201, 49.8%). He ranked third on the team in scoring with 11.1 points per game for a team that ended Dayton’s seven-year NCAA tournament drought. Brea twice won the Atlantic 10 Conference Sixth Man of the Year award.

Brea overcame major injuries at Dayton — broken wrists that cost him games at the beginning of his freshman season and then shin issues that resulted in him having surgeries on both legs in the spring of 2023 — to turn himself into a draft prospect.

In the 2024 NCAA tournament, Brea made 5 of 8 3-pointers and scored 15 points in Dayton’s 63-60 victory against Nevada in the first round. This past season, Brea led Kentucky with 23 points in a second-round victory against Illinois.

In one season at Kentucky, Brea averaged 11.6 points. He shot 43.5% from 3-point range (93 of 201).

“I could not be more excited for Koby Brea,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope wrote on X, “and this opportunity. Two years ago, Koby had a really tough surgery and spent an entire summer in a wheelchair. To see him come back from that, become a Kentucky legend and now make his way to the NBA has been incredible to witness.”

This was the third draft in a row a former Flyer has been drafted. That’s Dayton’s best streak since the draft was reduced to two rounds in 1989.

Brea is the 41st former Flyer to hear his name called in the NBA Draft since 1952. He is the fifth former Flyer selected in the last eight drafts.

• The Denver Nuggets drafted Dayton’s DaRon Holmes II in the first round last year with the No. 22 pick.

• Two years ago, the Suns drafted Toumani Camara in the second round with the No. 52 pick and later traded him to the Portland Trail Blazers.

• In 2020, the New York Knicks drafted Obi Toppin in the first round with the No. 8 pick.

• In 2018, the Dallas Mavericks picked Kostas Antetokounmpo in the second round with the 60th and last pick of the draft.

Brea will join a team that finished 36-46 this past season and fired coach Mike Budenholzer on April 14 after one season. The Suns hired Jordan Ott, an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers last season, as head coach earlier this month.

Gregory, who coached eight seasons at Dayton (2003-11), earned a promotion to general manager in May after being hired as vice president of player programming in June 2024.