Point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie (3) and the Greeneville Greene Devils took on the Jackson South Side Hawks in the TSSAA Class 3A state championship at Murphy Center on Saturday, March 19, 2022, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The Greeneville boys won 77-48. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY JESSE SMITHEY
The list of athletes from the 5Star Preps coverage to have been selected in an NBA Draft isn’t a long one.
But now, Ja’Kobi Gillespie’s name has been added to it.
The San Antonio Spurs chose the former Greeneville High School star in the second round with the 42nd overall pick of the 2026 NBA Draft on Wednesday night in New York City.
He became just the sixth player ever from the 5Star Preps coverage area to be drafted, per research on Basketball-Reference.com. And he’s the first player from the 5Star Preps coverage area since Karns’ Doug Roth in 1989 to be chosen in an NBA Draft.
Gillespie joins a Spurs franchise loaded with promising young talent — such as 7-foot-4 Victory Wembanyama — and that lost this summer to the New York Knicks in the 2026 NBA Finals.
“Every time there’s been a step up (in his career), he’s always just found a way to get that done,” Greeneville High basketball coach Brad Woolsey told 5Star Preps on Monday, June 22. “It’s not just that he’s able to do that, but it’s the way he does it — being a great teammate and being so unassuming and grounded. It’s probably one of the things that brings me the most joy in his rise, the way he has done it.
“He has done things the right way.”
A 6-foot guard, Gillespie led Greeneville High School to consecutive TSSAA state championships in the 2021 and 2022 seasons, earning state Tournament MVP in both years and 5Star Preps Player of the Year in both years, as well.
Gillespie was named TSSAA Class 3A Mr. Basketball in 2022.
Though he had college football scholarship offers from Vanderbilt and Virginia Tech, Gillespie signed to play basketball with Belmont. He averaged 9.6 points per game as a freshman to go with 3.3 assists, 2.1 rebounds and 1.5 steals. He played in 32 games and earned All-Missouri Valley Conference Freshman Team honors. Despite starting just eight of 32 games, he still ranked third in the league in steals per game.
As a sophomore at Belmont, he reached All-MVC Second Team status and got a spot on the All-MVP Defensive Team by leading the league in steals. He averaged 17.2 points, 4.2 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game in 25 games.
He transferred to Maryland in the Big Ten Conference for the 2024-25 season, and his game translated very well there, too. Playing alongside current NBA standout Derik Queen, Gillespie proved to be Maryland’s second-leading scorer (14.7 points per game). He led the team in assists, steals, made 3s, free-throw percentage and minutes played. He was fifth in the Big Ten in assists per game (4.8). He found a spot for himself on All-Big Ten Third Team.
Gillespie left Maryland after one season and returned to his home state to play for Tennessee. This past season, Gillespie started all 37 games at point guard for the Vols and set a new program single-season steals record with 79. His 103 made 3-pointers were the fifth-most made in a single season of Tennessee basketball history.
He was the first Vol to ever have 650 points and 200 or more assists in a single season.
He averaged 18.4 points, 5.4 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game and led Tennessee in scoring, assists, steals, made 3s, free-throw percentage, assist-to-turnover ration and total minutes played. He was the first player in SEC history to notch at least 200 assists and 100 made 3-pointers in a single season.
He led Tennessee to the Elite 8, averaging 21.8 points per game in the NCAA Tournament. The Associated Press named Gillespie the 2025-26 SEC Newcomer of the year and also selected him All-SEC Second Team. He was an All-SEC First Team choice by the coaches.
“He was a worker and he is a worker. Obviously, you can have talent. But if you don’t work, it’s probably not going to pay off,” Woolsey said. “When you look at him and who he is, a big thing is hard work and his willingness to go a little farther and do a little bit more than other people are.
“I also think his mentality. His last game against Michigan. I think this is the epitome of him. The last game against Michigan, when Yaxel Lendeborg, I kind of felt like he’d been a little bit of a jerk in that game toward the end. He had done a couple things that had annoyed me. Anyway, Kobi got that steal — they’re down 20 or whatever — and absolutely went at him and got that and-1. That’s the epitome of him. It didn’t matter what the score was, he was still going to go. And he was still going to fight. That play, when I think back to it, it’s just who he is.”
Per Basketball-Reference.com, Knovxille’s Paul Hogue (1962 NBA Draft, N.Y. Knicks), Oak Ridge’s Otis Howard (1978 NBA Draft, Milwaukee Bucks), Knoxville’s Ron Widby (1967 NBA Draft, Chicago Bulls), Knoxville’s Elston Turner (1981 NBA Draft, Dallas Mavericks) and the aforementioned Doug Roth preceded Gillespie as 5Star Preps area talents taken in an NBA Draft.
Turner had the most illustrious NBA career of those five, the 6-5 former Austin-East High and Ole Miss standout logging 505 total games played in the NBA. He averaged 4.7 points per game and played with Michael Jordan on the Chicago Bulls during the 1986-88 seasons. Turner has been an assistant coach in the NBA since 1996 and currently works for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Knoxville talents like Ty Greene (Bearden High), Dre Mathieu (Central) and Jordan Bowden (Carter) played in the NBA G League in the last 10-year span but never cracked through and made it into the NBA.
Who knows, perhaps Gillespie’s playing career in the NBA surpasses that of Turner’s and he’s ultimately heralded as the best to have come out of East Tennessee. To those who know Gillespie best, it wouldn’t come as a surprise.
“At every level, he’s just continued to get better,” Woolsey said. “And I feel like that’s a testament to who he is.
“No matter what: he’s going to do whatever he needs to do to be a winner.”