Amari Allen withdraws from 2026 NBA Draft, announces return to Alabama

Alabama freshman wing Amari Allen announced he’s withdrawn from the 2026 NBA Draft and will return to Tuscaloosa for the 2026-27 season. The deadline to withdraw from the draft was midnight Wednesday.

Allen posted his return announcement to his personal Instagram account with a photo of himself featuring the words: “I’m back.”

Allen had previously made it clear he’d return to school if he wasn’t assured to be a first-round selection in the upcoming draft. And as Wednesday’s 11:59 pm ET withdrawal deadline approached, it became clearer that result was less and less likely to occur.

“Obviously, first round. If it was second round, I would go back to school,” Allen said, according to CBS Sports’ Isaac Trotter. “I definitely feel I can go back to college and be a 20 (points) and 10 (rebounds) guy. Ultimately, though, I want to go to the NBA.”

The 6-foot-5 Allen was one of two Alabama stars that went through the 2026 NBA Draft process, joining sophomore guard Labaron Philon in Chicago for the multi-day NBA Draft Combine two weeks ago.

And while Philon is widely projected as a potential Top 14 overall pick, Allen is considered more of a late-first or early-second round selection, according to recent mock drafts. On3‘s James Fletcher III‘s latest mock projects Allen will be the No. 32 overall selection to the Memphis Grizzlies at the top of Round 2. 

Allen, who averaged 11.4 points and a team-leading 6.9 rebounds per game for Alabama in 2025-26, also revealed Crimson Tide coaches have reportedly promised he’d “have the ball in his hands a lot” as an on-ball guard in 2026-27 if he elects to return to Tuscaloosa, according to Sports Illustrated‘s Kevin Sweeney.

Philon went through the pre-draft process last year before ultimately withdrawing and returning to Alabama, where he averaged a team-leading 22.0 points, 5.0 assists, and 1.2 steals along with 3.5 rebounds per game in 2025-26. Now he’s poised to be the Crimson Tide’s first first-round NBA Draft pick since Brandon Miller and Noah Clowney were selected in 2023. The 2026 NBA Draft is set for June 23-24.

Meanwhile, Allen rejoins a Crimson Tide front court that will look a lot different in 2026-27 following the transfer additions of former NC State wing Cole Cloer, former Mississippi State power forward Jamarion Davis-Fleming, and former Kentucky power forward Brandon Garrison.