Skip to main content
Michigan

Yaxel Lendeborg withdraws from NBA Draft, will play for Michigan basketball in 2025-26

clayton-sayfieby: Clayton Sayfie05/27/25CSayf23
Yaxel Lendeborg
Yaxel Lendeborg on his visit to Michigan Wolverines basketball. (Photo by Michigan photography)

UAB forward Yaxel Lendeborg committed to Michigan in April but went through the NBA Draft process, including the combine in Chicago. The 6-foot-9, 240-pounder withdrew his name from the draft ahead of the May 28 deadline, though, meaning he will play his final college season at Michigan in 2025-26.

The Puerto Rico-born, Dominican Republic, Ohio and New Jersey-raised standout is the No. 1 transfer in the portal this offseason, according to the On3 Industry Ranking.

He averaged 17.7 points, 11.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 33.6 minutes per game at UAB last season. Lendeborg will be part of a new-look Michigan front court that features two other transfers in UCLA center Aday Mara and Illinois forward Morez Johnson Jr., among others.

Lendeborg impressed at the NBA Combine this month, including with his 6-foot-8 and 1/2 inches barefoot measurement and 7’4″ wingspan. He also dropped 13 points with 9 rebounds and 2 assists in his first scrimmage, before struggling by shooting 2-of-6 from the field with 2 turnovers the following day. The UAB transfer worked out with multiple NBA teams on an individual basis, as well.

Looking for a promise from an NBA team that they’d draft him in the first round, Lendeborg was torn all the way through the process, knowing playing at Michigan was a great option too.

“The draft process is something that’s hard to deal with, because I obviously love Michigan a lot, but the NBA is the all-time goal,” he said.

That goal can still be reached after a season at Michigan, though, and NBA teams have told him that. Plus, he can profit from NIL and revenue sharing during his final season in college.

One of the key factors in Lendeborg’s decision to commit to Michigan in the first place was head coach Dusty May, against whom he had competed when Lendeborg was at UAB and May was coaching Florida Atlantic.

“I was a fan of Dusty since he was at FAU,” Lendeborg explained. “I’ve been a big fan.

“From the jump, he was expressing to me that he was willing to wait while I go through this NBA Combine process. Other teams weren’t saying the same thing. They were willing to out-bid the NBA, and I wasn’t messing with that. I wanted a school that was gonna rock with me from the beginning to the end. That was Dusty.”

Lendeborg has a unique story. He played only 12 games in high school — all as a senior — after his mother and friends convinced him to join the team. With that encouragement and through the game of basketball, Lendeborg — unmotivated as a youth — turned his life around.

He played three seasons at the JUCO level with Arizona Western, earning All-America honors his final two. He’s the back-to-back reigning AAC Defensive Player of the Year with UAB and collected first-team all-conference honors in 2023-24 and 2024-25.

You may also like