NBA is a magical wonderland to those who come up with a natural affinity for basketball. And Keita Bates- Diop is one of those players in the NBA who never fails to add flavor.

To remain specific, Keita is a basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs.

He serves as a small forward for the team. Keita has managed to grasp a few accomplishments since two years of beginning his career. He was the Big Ten Player of the Year in 2018, and also, there are a few more to count.

Moreover, during his time in OSU, he was also top-notched to the second round at the NCAA tournament.

How is he doing in his professional life? Does he have a girlfriend? How is his life like? You will get to know all of this once you go through this letter.

But before that, how about taking a sneak peek into the major quick facts about the young player, Keita Bates-Diop.

Keita Bates- Diop | Quick Facts

Keita Bates Diop | Early LIfe

Keita Bates Diop was born on January 23, 1996, to his parents Richard and Wilma Bates, in Sacramento, California. He is not only the child in the family; he is grown alongside his brother, Kai Bates Diop.

His father, Richard, added Diop to his name. We will indeed talk about this later in the article. 

He attended University High School in Normal, Illinois, where he notched 18.4 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks in his junior year.

The Chicago Tribune, the most-read daily newspaper in Chicago, US, rated him as one of the top 5 candidates for Illinois Mr. Basketball.

Rivals.com rated him no. 24 nationally in his class.

Keeping sports aside, Keita was a studious child. As a kid, according to The Athletic, he was asked to read a story and brief it to his parents each Saturday.

Keita’s mother says he holds a very thoughtful personality; he always takes his time to address the situation and react.

Also, Luol Deng is one of his friends cum favorite players. They both got teamed up together in their rookie season.

Family line and Charity Conduct

Talking about his father, Richard used to play basketball at Creighton University from 1979 to 1983. He is a law degree holder that he uses as a legal practitioner in Bloomington, III.

His brother, Kai, also used to play basketball at high school. He was a top-tier athlete, but one day, he collapsed on the court during basketball practice, his heart stopped beating.

His athlete coach, Maddie Biehl, and Emily Martz, soon went to get an AED and saved his life.

After six days of hospitalization, the attack resulted in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. However, Kai now can play basketball but to a certain extent.

He is fine now, though he has to swallow a pill every day to monitor his adrenaline.

And since that mishaps, the family has started a charity event called Kai13, where they raise money to help manage AED’s for eight different schools.

Keita Bates Diop | College Career

Keita was benched out for the first year of his college at OSU IN 2014. For his sophomore year, Keita went on grabbing  11.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.

Following that, he had to stay out because of his fractured leg in junior year.

He appeared for the first nine games, where he notched 9.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.

Keita was provided with a medical redshirt and later popped up as one of the best options for the coach, Chris Holtmann. Furthermore, he received his first Big Ten player of the week honors on December 11, 2017.

The United States Basketball Writers Association granted him the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week after his strong performance against  Iowa Hawkeyes men’s basketball, Michigan State, and  William & Mary.

Keita notched his second Big Ten player of the week later.

His biggest strike occurred when he was awarded the  Big Ten Player of the Year on February 26, 2018, amassing 19.8 points and 8.7 rebounds on average.

He also led his team OSU to the second round in the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

Following that, Keita decided to drop his last college year and announced the  2018 NBA Draft.

Keita Bates-Diop hasn’t had a chance yet (2020)

Since the season initiated, Keita Bates-Diop has only been with the Denver Nuggets for a short time.

As he’s only struck seven games with his famous club, his most renowned enrichment to the team thus far has been his role in Denver, securing a first-round pick from the Houston Rockets.

Bates-Diop does have the potential to make a renowned impact for the Nuggets, but it’s unclear if he’ll get the chance.

With a non-guaranteed pay for the 2020-21 season, the former Ohio State Buckeye may find himself cut or used in a trade set as Denver looks to upgrade their membership.

Keita Bates Diop | Professional Career

Minnesota Timberwolves (2018–2020)

Observing his playful performance,  the Minnesota Timberwolves hired him with the 48th pick in the second round of the 2018 NBA draft on  June 21, 2018.

Keita took part in the  NBA Summer League in 2018 and 2019.

Denver Nuggets (2020)

The  Timberwolves waived him to Denver Nuggets in a four-team trade on February 5, 2020. He was also placed on the team, the Windy City Bulls, on March 1.

San Antonio Spurs (2020-present)

Following that, Keita signed a two-way contract with the San Antonio Spurs to grant him the  Austin Spurs developmental program in Austin. Although we still are not quite aware of the contract details.

You can check the scouting report of Bates here.

Keita Bates Diop | Personal Life

Let’s hop on to the most exciting section of this article, where people are always curious to know about his personal life, girlfriends, hookups, and breakups.

Keita is one of the finest young eligible bachelors out there.

We are sure that the guy must have a maximum female fan following; after all, he is young, talented, and intelligent. However, there are no such exclusive rumors on his relationship talks.

Maybe Keita has been single for a while and just focused on his career goals. And why not? Life is not just about finding your loved ones first. Your career should be your priority.

On the other hand, it also might be that he must have a secret relationship, which Keita has kept private.

Besides all of these, Keita is not loud; he enjoys watching basketball. Keita is a graduate in economics from OSU-College in four years.

He is super good when it comes to numbers and graphs. It catches his interest.

Keita did not just want to embrace and explore athletics but also prioritized intelligence and academics. That is something he took from his name and lived up to it.

“People say that everyone is more talented and skilled, but what will separate the good from the great is mentality and work ethic,” is something which was opined by his former roommate D’Angelo Russell, with who he talks at least once a week. And he always looks up to it.

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Keita Bates Diop | Age, Body Measurement and Horoscope

Keita is 26 years old as of 2022. And as per his date of birth, January 23, 1996, his sun sign is Aquarius.

Also, he does sync in with the traits of being an Aquarius. He believes in loving what he does. And he graduated doing well in athletics as well academics at OSU.

Talking about his body measurement, Keita is 6 feet 8 inches tall and weighs around 104 kg. His height and weight completely go along as an athlete. He fits in the tribe of basketball.

Keita Bates Diop | Net Worth

No doubt, a prolific career in the NBA is still in the making, but Keita has been working day in day out to hitch the success.

While joining Minnesota Timberwolves legally on July 7, 2018, he signed a 3-year contract worth $4 million.

  Further, Keita was paid $838,464 as an annual salary in 2018 and $1,416,852 in 2019.

Moreover, it is configured that Keita remained the 16th best-paid player of the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2018.

Moreover, as mentioned in playerswiki.com, he earns $1,663,861 for the 2020 season. And talking about net worth,

Keita Bates Diop is rumored to have an accumulated net worth of around more than $1.2 million.

Keita also has a car gifted by GMC after he cracked a rookie deal.

Net Worth of Keita Bates in Different Currencies

Here is the net worth of Keita Bates in different currencies, including the Indian Rupee and Bitcoin.

Keita Bates Diop | Social Media Presence

Instagram– 39.1k followers

Twitter– 10.6k followers.

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Some FAQs

What is the reason behind his poetic name?

His father, Richard, added Diop to his surname as Cheikh Anta Diop’s work influenced Richard.

He is a researcher in history, politics, anthropology, Sondjata Keita Mandingo of medieval West Africa, and the founder of Mali’s Empire.

To pay tribute to Sondjata Keita and Sheikh Anto Diop, Richard named his firstborn child after those two African personalities.

And here certainly Keita (kay-tuh) means worshipper, Bates (Baits) is taken from his family, Diop (Jop), in loving memory of the man that his father appreciates every day.

What is Keita Bates Diop’s college career statistic like?

Well, Keita Bates Diop played a total of 109 games in college, among which he saved 70 of them. During those, he played 24.8 minutes on average in each game and maintained a .472 field goal percentage. 

Likewise, he has a three-point percentage of .352 and a free throw percentage of .776. Furthermore, he has an average of 5.7 rebounds, 1.1 assists, .6 steals, 1.2 blocks, and 11.7 points.