PROFESSIONAL CAREER

Career Transactions

Was selected in the first round (20th overall) by the HEAT in the 2025 NBA Draft…signed by the HEAT on July 1, 2025.

BEFORE NBA

Played one season at the University of Illinois…as a freshman, started all 33 games in which he appeared and averaged a team-high 15.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, a team-high 4.7 assists and 30.9 minutes while shooting 44 percent from the field and a freshman school record 84.5 percent from the foul line…was named the Illinois Male Athlete Freshman of the Year…earned Big Ten All-Freshman honors…named to the All-B1G Second Team by the Associated Press and the All-B1G Third Team by the coaches and media…was the Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Week twice…set the freshman school record for 20-point games (10) and tied the freshman record for total points (494)…led the team in points, assists and free throws made and finished second in steals, defensive rebounds and minutes…posted five double-doubles, recording two points-assists double-doubles, including 12 points and an Illinois freshman record 13 assists vs. SIU-Edwardsville on Nov. 8 and 16 points and an Illinois freshman NCAA Tournament record 10 assists in the team’s first round win vs. Xavier on Mar. 21…set the program freshman record for assists in a season opener with seven vs. Eastern Illinois on Nov. 4…connected on the game-winning basket vs. Missouri on Dec. 22…made the game-winning lay-up at Washington on Jan. 5…hit the eventual game-winning three-point basket with 39 seconds left vs. 18th-ranked Purdue on Mar. 7.

PERSONAL LIFE

Name is pronounced KAS-per-es yah-koo-CHOH-nis…received the nicknames “Kas” or “K” while in the US because his name is too long…is the son of Tomas Jakucˇionis and Audrone Jakucˇioniene…has an older sister, Kornelija Jakucˇionyte…credits his family for making a difference in his life by always supporting him and teaching him life lessons…took sports management classes at Illinois because of his love for sports…when his playing career is over he wants to stay involved in basketball in some capacity…his favorite sport other than basketball is soccer where he’s a fan of FC Barcelona…in his free time he enjoys being outside and also listening to music, podcasts and comedy…says something most people don’t know about him is that he speaks 3.5 languages (Lithuanian, Spanish, English and a little Catalan)…has an endorsement deal with Nike…he started playing basketball in the youth ranks of Perlas Vilnius, a team affiliated with Rytas Vilnius…in 2021, he left home by himself at the age of 15 and moved to Spain to improve as a basketball player…played for European power FC Barcelona, primarily for Barca’s second team while also seeing limited action on the club’s top team…in 19 games during the 2023-24 season he averaged 19.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.7 assists and would be selected to the 2023-24 Under-18 Euroleague All-Tournament Team…when he made his professional debut for the FC Barcelona first team on April 19, 2023 he became the third youngest player to compete for FC Barcelona in the ACB (16 years, 10 months and 18 days)…represented Lithuania and helped lead them to the gold medal at the FIBA U16 European Championship in 2022 where he averaged 9.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 3.4 steals…also competed for Lithuania at the FIBA U18 European Championship in 2023 where he averaged 13.0 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists and the FIBA U18 European Championship in 2024 where he averaged 19.4 points, 5.3 assists, 4.3 rebounds, 1.71 steals and 29.7 minutes…wears size 14 sneakers.

Kasparas Jakučionis