Former Alabama guard Chris Youngblood made the first shot of his NBA career on Thursday night.
In a rematch of the teams that met in the 2025 NBA Finals, Youngblood took a pass from Ajay Mitchell and sank an open 3-pointer from the corner for his first NBA points. The bucket pulled the Oklahoma City Thunder into a 27-27 tie with the Indiana Pacers with 9:31 left in the second quarter at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Until Saturday, it didn’t appear Youngblood would be with the Thunder when the season tipped off. He was with the team on an Exhibit 10 contract, sometimes called a training-camp contract. But on Saturday, Oklahoma City upgraded Youngblood to a two-way contract.
A two-way contract allows a player to move between an NBA team and its NBA Gatorade League affiliate without needing to pass through waivers while earning the same pay in both leagues. Each team can carry three two-way players who may appear on the active roster of the NBA team for as many as 50 games. A two-way contract is worth $636,435 for the 2025-26 season, which is half of the rookie minimum.
The Thunder’s NBA G League affiliate is the Oklahoma City Blue, whose season starts on Nov. 7.
Youngblood made his NBA debut on Tuesday night, when the Thunder opened the season with a 125-124 double-overtime victory against the Houston Rockets. But he was on the court for only six seconds.
Youngblood played one season at Alabama after three seasons at Kennesaw State and one at South Florida. After winning the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year Award for the 2023-24 season, Youngblood averaged 10.3 points and 2.3 rebounds in 28 games for the Crimson Tide last season, when Alabama advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament.
Passed over in the 2025 NBA Draft, Youngblood played for Oklahoma City in the NBA 2K26 Summer League in Las Vegas in July. He averaged 12.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.4 steals in five games in Las Vegas after he had averaged 8.7 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 1.3 steals in three Salt Lake City Summer League games.
In four preseason games this month, Youngblood averaged 14.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.0 steals for the Thunder. Youngblood made 44.4 percent of his 3-point shots in the preseason.
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