Bruno Fernando

Bruno Afonso David Fernandes (known as Bruno Fernando) was born in 1998 in Luanda, Angola. Luanda is the nation's capital and a port city on the west coast of Southern Africa. He is the son of Bernardo Fernando and Natalia David. Bruno is one of eight siblings and has four brothers and three sisters. After playing on the 2014 FIBA Under-17 World Championship Angolan national team, Fernando joined the Montverde Academy in Montverde, Florida. That led to Fernando spending the 2016-17 season at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, before he attended the University of Maryland. Fernando is the first ever Angolan-born player selected in the NBA draft. Fernando's favorite all-time NBA veteran is Kevin Garnett. Fans can follow Fernando on Twitter @BrunoFernandoMV and on Instagram @the_angolan_bf. Fernando originally committed to SMU, but decided to reopen his recruitment after spending a season with IMG Academy. He chose Maryland and quickly established himself as a big man for coach Mark Turgeon. Initially as a freshman, he came off the bench, but he started 20 of the team's 30 games. In his first year, he had three double-doubles, including 18 points and 16 rebounds in the February win over Rutgers. The offense focused more on Fernando in his sophomore season and he supplied 22 double-doubles, including seven straight during Big Ten play. The 6-10 native of Angola scored a career-high 25 points on 11-of-12 from the field in a January win over Indiana. He also snatched 19 rebounds in a win at Nebraska. Fernando led the Terrapins back to the Big Dance and had double-doubles in the win over Belmont and the loss to LSU. After two seasons of patrolling the paint and averaging 12.0 points and 8.7 rebounds for Maryland, Fernando declared for the 2019 NBA Draft where he was picked by the Atlanta Hawks with the 34th pick.