On Oct. 23, the Texas Legends, the NBA affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks, selected 6 foot 3 inch point guard Eddie Stansberry ’16 in the first round, and seventh overall pick in the 2021 Annual NBA Development League Draft. 

Nine days later though, he was waived by the Legends. It did not take too long for a team to pick up Stansberry’s contract as the Santa Cruz Warriors, the NBA affiliate team of the Golden State Warriors, would claim him two days later. 

Stanberry was born and raised in San Francisco. He attended Junipero Serra High School for his first two years and transferred to Archbishop Riordan for his last two and graduated in 2016. 

Coming out of high school, Stansberry was highly recruited by several schools, including Hawaii, Gonzaga, University of San Francisco, University of San Diego and University of Southern California but took his talents to City College of San Francisco. 

After his two years at City College, he attended the University of Hawaii in West Oahu for his last two years in college. He averaged 13.6 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.0 assist per game at Hawaii and graduated in 2020. 

Stansberry said that his experience playing for City College and Hawaii “was great! That was the start of something special in my career. Winning a state championship with City College and then spending my last two years in Hawaii building my game to another level.”

He went undrafted in the 2020 NBA draft, which made him an unrestricted free agent until he was drafted by the Texas Legends and more recently now on the Santa Cruz Warriors. 

In seven games for Santa Cruz, he’s averaging 6.7 points and 1.6 rebounds a game. His experience so far with the team has “been everything that I’ve imagined since I was a kid. Everyday has been fun! And that’s important to me.”

He concluded by saying “being able to play for my home team is a true blessing and I used to dream of doing it, and now I am.”