Former Hopkins basketball star Maya Nnaji, a five-star recruit for Arizona in 2022, announced Friday that she is “stepping away from basketball to start a new chapter of my life.”
Nnaji announced on the X platform that, “in light of recent events, it has become clear to me that I need to reprioritize my main goal and true life’s purpose: becoming a physician.”
On Wednesday, with Nnaji away from the team, Arizona coach Adia Barnes explained to reporters Nnaji was trying to balance basketball with an academic track toward medical school.
“It’s really challenging and it has a lot of demands and she misses a lot because of basketball,” Barnes said. “… She misses her job shadowing. She misses labs, internships, and then because of that, also misses basketball stuff, too.”
Nnaji was named the 2021 Star Tribune metro girls basketball player of the year. A McDonald’s All-America, the 6-foot-4 Nnaji was rated as the ninth best player nationally in the Class of 2022. She was the highest-ranked recruit to sign at Arizona, where her brother, Zeke, played en route to the NBA.
After averaging just 4.4 points and 13.0 minutes per game as a freshman. Nnaji averaged 10.2 points and 22.2 minutes per game this season and started seven of the team’s 10 games.
Barnes said when Nnaji took the break from basketball, “I was very supportive and all in on it because that was what she signed up for. I knew she was going to that program when she got here, so I have to support what she’s doing because her dreams and aspirations are to be a doctor.”