Ja’Kobi Gillespie is headed to the NBA Summer League.
After getting selected in the second round of the NBA Draft last week, Gillespie will suit up for the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Summer League, which begins Friday with the California Classic before moving to Las Vegas for games July 9-19.
Gillespie made history last week as the first athlete from Northeast Tennessee selected in the NBA Draft in the modern era, since the draft went to its current two-round format in 1989. Gillespie is also the highest NBA Draft selection ever from the region.
He will be joined on the Spurs’ summer league roster by the player he replaced as Tennessee’s starting point guard, Zakai Zeigler, who spent last season playing pro ball in France; and Igor Milicic, Jr., who played for the Sixers’ G League team last season.
Other former Vols slated for summer league action include Nate Ament, chosen 13th in the draft by the Milwaukee Bucks to become the ninth top-15 selection and 13th first-round pick in Tennessee program history; and Felix Okpara, who went in the second round with the 46th overall pick to Orlando then got traded to Washington.
Each team will play at least five games in Vegas in the summer league. The squads with the four best records advance to the semifinals on July 18, with the championship game July 19. All 76 games in Vegas will be broadcast on either Amazon Prime Video or one of the ESPN platforms (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN+).
Mac McClung Update
Mac McClung is a free agent again. His two-way deal with the Chicago Bulls ended on Monday.
The Gate City product and three-time NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner Mac McClung did an interview with Men’s Journal earlier this month. McClung is also a two-time MVP in the G League, averaging 31.8 points and 7.9 assists per game last season.
“That award is just a product of making the most of your opportunity. That was my opportunity,” McClung told the magazine. “There’s something about that. Everywhere I’m at.”
McClung did not take part in the slam dunk contest this past season.
Baseball
Evan Carter, the only Northeast Tennessee athlete currently on an MLB roster, came off the injured list Sunday after missing about three weeks with a strained oblique. Carter has played in three games since his return, going 2-for-9. Both hits came in a June 29 win at Cleveland; he scored twice in a 6-3 Texas win.
For the season, Carter has a batting line of .178/.289 OBP/.606 OPS, with six homers, 21 RBIs, and 10 stolen bases.
Cam Sisneros is doing well in his second full season of minor league baseball. Sisneros (.266, 8 HR, 39 RBI) has a .417 on base percentage, is slugging .436, and has a 129 wRC+ (that’s Weighted Runs Created Plus, for anyone not adept in advanced seamhead statistics), which is used to calculate the total offensive value of a player. A 100 wRC+ is considered to be the league average. In other words, a 129 wRC+ means Sisneros creates 29% more runs than a league average hitter would in the same number of plate appearances.
You followed all that, right?
Chosen by the Cubs in the 14th round of the 2024 draft out of ETSU, where he was Southern Conference Player of the Year in 2024 and set the program single-season RBIs record, Sisneros got traded to the Houston Astros on June 20 and was assigned to the Astros’ Double-A affiliate in Corpus Christi.
Landon Knack is trying to work his way back to the big leagues. Knack, who hadn’t thrown all season due to a strained intercostal, began a rehab assignment last Thursday, June 24, for the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City. He threw Tuesday, in a start, and worked 2 ⅔ scoreless innings, allowing a hit and a walk with four strikeouts. That was a marked improvement over his first rehab start: two runs and five hits allowed in 1 ⅓ innings. Knack is a product of Science Hill High School and ETSU, both in Johnson City.
Knack is 6-7 with a 4.12 ERA all-time in the majors, taking the mound as both a starter and a reliever. He’s got a career WHIP of 1.21 and has totaled 37 walks against 111 strikeouts.
Outfielder Gavin Cross has his offensive numbers on the upswing. Cross, a product of Tennessee High in Bristol, TN, who played his college ball at Virginia Tech, hit .270 with a .754 OPS in the month of June, slugging three of his four homers thus far in 2026 for the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate in Omaha. Heading into July, Cross is hitting .211/.292 OBP/.596 OPS.
Relief pitcher Hunter Stratton, a Bristol native and Sullivan East High School alum, has yet to surrender a run since he was traded back to the Pittsburgh Pirates organization by the Atlanta Braves in mid June. In four outings totaling 5 ⅓ innings of work, Stratton has allowed just two hits and two walks, lowering his ERA and WHIP for the season to 3.60 and 1.47 respectively.
Josh Owens, a Johnson City native and Providence Academy product chosen in the third round of last year’s draft by the Texas Rangers, continues to see work as a two-way player in the Rangers’ Arizona Complex League team. Heading into July, Owens had a slash of .276/.369/,883, with seven homers, 24 RBIs, and five steals. As a pitcher, Owens has a 1.84 ERA and 1.16 WHIP, with four walks and 18 strikeouts in 14 ⅔ innings. When he’s a position player, Owens has spent his time at second base or shortstop. He’s been better defensively at second, with a .958 fielding percentage and one error in 24 chances, as opposed to five miscues in 35 chances at short.