Aiken’s RJ Felton on 2025 NBA Draft radar
AIKEN, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - Area basketball coach Russell Felton knew his son was going to be different when he was just 3 years old.
Now, his son has caught the eye of all 30 teams in the NBA.
When you set goals, you believe anything can happen, and for RJ Felton, that list began in sixth grade.
“He said, ‘I want to make all conference, all state. I want to play on the Nike circuit. I want to play college D1 basketball,’” said Russell Felton, RJ’s dad. “Then he said, pro. He said, ‘I want that too.’”
Last month, RJ was a last-minute invite to the Portsmouth Invitational, the first of two NBA pre-draft camps.
“I think RJ’s agent pretty much made some calls, and he reached out and said, we got a guy here right here in North Carolina,” said Russell. “They said never heard of him, can he get here in two hours?”
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“They’re like, ‘who is this kid?’ And you know, some people think it might have been a fluke. Let’s see, can you do it the next day? Next day, he drops 25,” said Russell.
And the next day felt like he was fielding 30.
“He can get a phone call like right about now while he’s up there in Detroit working out that might say, ‘Hey, you got to go to the Lakers, you might go to the Clippers,” said Russell. “They’ve been to Sacramento, they’ve been to Dallas, they’ve been to OKC, they’ve been to Miami.”
All looking for number 3.
“I think something good’s going to happen,” said Russell. “And to me, that’ll be a dream come true for him.”
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If Felton does get drafted later this month, he will be the first from Aiken to hear his name called.
RJ averaged a career-high 18.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game in 33 games played for the Pirates.
He also finishes his East Carolina career with 1,774 career points, which is the third-most in program history and second-most among Division I players.
RJ’s 620 points scored are the fourth-most points scored by a Pirate in a single season, and his 18.8 points per game rank eighth all-time in program history.
Maybe he’ll choose number 3, his dad says he wears it because he idolized Dwayne Wade growing up.
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