Growing up, Malik Osborne played several sports before settling on basketball as his full-time venture. It eventually became his passion, and the former Florida State forward is now on the verge of seeing that hard work and dedication pay off with the NBA draft rapidly approaching.
Osborne, whose dad played football at Iowa State while his mom ran track at Lewis College, initially received no collegiate scholarships out of high school. But a year at Don Bosco Prep in Crown Point, Indiana, helped change that.
He then garnered interest from several programs, including Oregon State, Rice and Seton Hall. Osborne eventually committed to play at Rice and spent one season there before transferring to Florida State. It was there that Osborne developed into a draft prospect.
Osborne averaged six points and 4.8 rebounds over his first two seasons as the Seminoles advanced to the Sweet 16 each year. He had put forth his best season to date this past year as a junior, but an ankle injury cut it short after 17 games. He averaged 10 points and 6.9 rebounds.
Now, Osborne is healthy once again and preparing for his next step.
The 6-foot-9 standout has worked out with several teams during the pre-draft process, including the Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic among others. He is looking to become the next Seminole to enter the NBA after a strong run in Tallahassee.
Rookie Wire caught up with Osborne to discuss his basketball journey, his collegiate career, the pre-draft process, what he is looking to showcase to teams and much more.
Please note: This interview was minorly edited in its transcript for clarity
MO: I have been training at the Sports Academy in Frisco, Texas, with Tandem Sports & Entertainment. We have a lot of guys from all over the place from Australia, Russia and Spain, and they all came here to train. We do a lot of stuff. We have a weight room where we start off pretty much at 9 a.m. We have a little stretch of conditioning and then after that, we get on the court for skill work. Sometimes it can be individual workouts or sometimes it could just be a full squad workout where everybody’s working together.
We work on certain things that teams are looking for and then just sharpen our skill work as far as ball handling and shooting just to make sure that we do the drills at these workouts that we’re at our best and our peak when it comes to that skill set. After that, you have a recovery room that’s…
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