After a historic performance at Grand Canyon earlier this spring that nearly ended his playing career due to multiple heart surgeries, Tyon Grant-Foster is officially heading to the NBA Draft.
Grant Foster announced on social media on Monday that he has declared for the draft. The Grand Canyon star was the WAC Player of the Year last season and led Lopez to his first NCAA Tournament win this spring.
Grant Foster began his career at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa, then had brief stints at both Kansas State and DePaul before landing at Grand Canyon last summer. This season, he finally reached his full potential on the court. Grant Foster averaged a career-high 20.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game for Lopez, winning the conference Player of the Year award and leading Lopez to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in program history.
They were then trailed by Grant-Foster by 22 points, and Lopez defeated St. Mary's 75-66 in the tournament opener, their first win of the tournament. Lopez was defeated by the University of Alabama in the second round, but Grant Foster recorded 29 points and 8 rebounds in this game.
However, Grant Foster nearly died before reaching the Grand Canyon. While with DePaul in 2021, Grant-Foster collapsed after returning to the locker room after a game. He had to be resuscitated three times before being rushed to a local hospital, where he spent 10 days recovering. Then, a few months later, it happened again during a pickup game at a local rec center.
Grant-Foster ended up undergoing two heart surgeries and was out of the game for about 16 months before he was finally cleared to return in March last year. That's when he decided to play at the Grand Canyon and the rest was history.
“It was an ecstatic moment, the best moment of my life,” Grant-Foster said of being cleared to play again.
It's unclear where Grant-Foster will end up in the NBA Draft later this summer. Yahoo Sports' Kristen Peek didn't list him in her latest mock draft, which was made public before he declared.
Either way, Grant-Foster is still playing and has a chance to make it at the highest level. A little over a year ago, that seemed impossible.
