The Philadelphia 76ers drafted Johni Broome in the second round of the 2025 NBA Draft, and while that pick may not bring the flash of a first-round selection, the Sixers may well have a bigger plan in mind.
Who is Johni Broome?
Not long ago, in the NBA, it wasn’t uncommon for players to come out of college between 21 and 23 years old. They had played, sometimes through senior year, and if they were really good, they would try for the NBA after their junior season. Today, “one-and-done” players are much more common, to the point where they make up the majority of the draft.
There was a player, back in 2023, who decided to enter the NBA draft, go through the process, and look to gauge the interest he would have in the draft. That player met with representatives from the Sixers, who told him that he would have to improve his rebounding and motor. When the draft wasn’t going to fall his way, he decided to return to school and work on the things that he’d heard.
Two years later, the Sixers selected him in the second round of the 2025 NBA Draft, having watched him put in the work to become one of the better two-way bigs in college basketball. He’s become an excellent rebounder, on both ends of the floor, using strength, intelligence, and positioning to rebound against players that, athletically, would be considered his superior.
On the offensive side of the ball, he’s not a major deep threat, having shot just 30.2% on his three-point attempts throughout his college career. What he does very well is use an assortment of quality post-maneuvers from short floaters, hook shots, and even short jumpers to take advantage of those same types of players. In his final college season, he averaged 18.5 points and 10.8 rebounds while shooting 51% from the floor.
He’s been recognized as the Sporting News College Player of the Year, and had multiple publications name him as a consensus, first-team All-American. He won the Pete Newell Award for the nation’s best big man and the Karl Malone Award for the nation’s top power forward. This player was recognized as an all-SEC team member, twice, as well as being named the SEC Player of the Year, twice. He’s won quite a few other awards as well, throughout his college career.
One of the most productive two-way players in all of college basketball for the 2024-25 season, he used his post maneuvers as well as physicality to get the job done on the offensive end while using that same physicality on the defensive end to average 2.5 blocked shots for his career. He’s rarely out of position and can be the anchor of a defensive unit on the floor.
Everything that he was told to work on, he did, and returned to the draft a much-improved player. The knock on him is that he’s 22 years old and will soon turn 23 or “ancient” in the eyes of many teams in the league. Except one, the Philadelphia 76ers. The same team that met with him in 2023 and told him to work on parts of his game, noticed his work and improvement and rewarded him by selecting him in the second round of the draft.
Welcome to Philadelphia, Johni Broome.
His fit with the Sixers
While most will look at his age and think of it as a negative, the young player has improved throughout his collegiate career, has been recognized as such, and looks to be exactly what the Sixers could use, currently as well as through the future years. The defense and rebounding, which are his calling card, are needed more than anything for this Sixers team. His ability to play both center and power forward will be a huge bonus for a team that lacks quality pieces at both positions, beyond the oft-injured Joel Embiid.
While the future is unknown for the former MVP and Sixers’ biggest star, Joel Embiid, due to battling injuries and needing plenty of down time if he’s to be at his best come playoff time, Broome will provide quality play on both sides of the court with his age proving to be a positive with the maturity he’s shown. The team can develop it’s young star, VJ Edgecombe, while continuing to work with players like Adem Bona and Justin Edwards to improve their games in the frontcourt but Broome will be seasoned and ready.
While he’s not going to get the headlines and reactions that players like Edgecombe, Tyrese Maxey, Embiid, Paul George or Jared McCain get, he’s going to be able to step in and provide the quality production in the front court that the team has lacked recently. While he may not be the biggest, fastest or most athletic player on the team, Johni Broome will quickly become a fan favorite as well as the surprise of the Sixers team this season.
Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images
