Austin Reaves' Oklahoma highlights have NBA fans baffled that Lakers star went undrafted

Austin Reaves is in the midst of one of the best runs of play in the history of the NBA.

He just hit a game-winner Wednesday for the Los Angeles Lakers, and that wasn't even the best night the former Oklahoma Sooners standout has had recently.

These are his stats in the five games to start this season, with Luka Doncic missing the last three and LeBron James missing all five:

• 26 points, 5 rebounds, 9 assists, 9-16 FG (7-10 FT)
• 25 points, 7 rebounds, 11 assists, 9-15 FG (5-5 FT)
• 51 points, 11 rebounds, 9 assists, 12-22 FG (21-22 FT)
• 41 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 13-22 FG (12-14 FT)
• 28 points, 1 rebound, 16 assists, 9-24 FG (7-7 FT)

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Those would be remarkable numbers for any player in the NBA.

And then basketball fans remember that Reaves went undrafted.

At this point, it feels quite astonishing. Reaves' Oklahoma highlights have been making the rounds on social media, and they're certainly quite impressive:

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Reaves' college journey was a long one, though. He's the kind of lengthy-tenured college player that NBA teams often overlook.

He started his career at Wichita State, and even in his second season, he started only a third of the games and averaged 8.1 points.

He sat out a year after transferring to Oklahoma (remember when players had to do that?).

By the time he took the floor for OU, he had clearly improved tremendously. In 2019-20, he put up 14.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.

And in his last season with the Sooners, in 2020-21, Reaves averaged 18.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game.

His shooting wasn't there yet, at just 30.5% from 3, another knock on his NBA potential.

But the story of Reaves is of a guy who never stopped getting better. That's been true in the league, too, and it's why he's on such a historic run despite being a player that had doubters all the way along his journey.

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