This Missouri School is Sending Students to the NBA

Any school in the United States would be proud to have a former student playing in the NBA. Link Year Academy in Branson has four there now.

Link Year is not your traditional high school. It is a post high school boarding school meant to give students a ramp toward college in athletics and academics. Nestled within the Kanakuk Kamps Campus in Branson it was formed by former college basketball player Adam Donyes who wanted to create a place where kids got that extra help to get a running start towards college.

The basketball program has been especially successful winning the prep school national championship in 2023. The Link Year Lions play a national schedule against other prep schools and do not compete within the Missouri State High School Athletic Association. At least not in basketball.

Link Year Academy currently has four former students playing in the NBA including:

Ja’Kobe Walter – Walter played high school ball in Texas and won a state championship before transferring for his senior year in 2022-23 to Link Year. He then played college ball at Baylor for a year before being drafted 19^th overall by the Toronto Raptors.

Julian Phillips  -- Phillips, from South Carolina transferred to Link Year for his senior year in 2021-22. He signed to play college ball at Tennessee, and following his freshman year entered the NBA draft and was selected 35^th overall by the Boston Celtics and traded to the Chicago Bulls.

Jordan Walsh  -- Also from Texas, Walsh transferred to Link Year for his senior year of high school in 2021-22. Walsh went to Arkansas for college playing his freshman year in Fayetteville before entering the NBA draft being taken 38^th by Sacramento before being traded to Boston. He won a ring with the Celtics this past season.

Mason Jones  -- Another Texan who went to Link Year Academy. Jones however attended Link for a post-graduate year in 2016-2017. He then played in college as a freshman at Connors State in Oklahoma before transferring to Arkansas and playing from 2018 -2020. Declaring for the NBA draft after his junior season and going undrafted. He has signed two-way contracts and played in the NBA and G-League for Houston, Philadelphia and the LA Lakers before playing in Mexico and Turkey before coming back to the states and signing with the Sacramento Kings.

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True, this isn’t your typical secondary school. But having four former students on current NBA rosters is impressive by any standard.