Yves Pons

Yves Pons was born in May of 1999 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He is the adopted son of French parents Babeth and Jean-Claude Pons who took the youngster in at the age of 4 after he was separated from his biological mother and spent about a year in a Haitian orphanage. Pons then attended the INSEP (National Institute of Sport and Physical Education) Academy in Paris and played in the Nationale Masculine 1 -- France's amateur third-tier division -- for the academy's affiliated club, Centre Fédéral de Basket-ball. He also played on the French national team in the 2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship in Spain where he averaged 10.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks while shooting 76.9 percent on two-point field goal attempts. His performance at this event led him to be seen as a top-10 international prospect and was rated as a four-star recruit in 2017. Pons then decided to attend college at Tennessee and became the first-ever French men's basketball player in the history of the program. He played an average of 5.2 minutes per game as a freshman and appeared in 24 games after suffering an ankle injury in his career debut, but earned a spot on the 2017-18 SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll. Pons would go on to average 2.2 points, 1.8 rebounds and 11.4 minutes over 35 games with 13 starts as a sophomore. His game took a large jump between his sophomore and junior seasons as he averaged 10.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and an SEC-best 2.4 blocks per game and was named the 2020 SEC Defensive Player of the Year. Pons then declared for the 2020 NBA Draft, but ultimately decided to return to Tennessee for his senior year in which he was one of 10 finalists for the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year Award. That season, he set the program record for blocks in a game with nine against the Florida Gators and finished his collegiate career ranked eighth on Tennessee's all-time blocks list with 137. After going undrafted in the 2021 NBA Draft, Pons signed with the Memphis Grizzlies in August of 2021 and was a member of the Grizzlies' NBA Summer League team. He went on to sign a two-way deal to play for the Grizzlies and their NBA G League affiliate, the Memphis Hussle. Fans can follow Pons on Twitter @Airpons.