Smith on selection by Rockets: 'H-Town! What's good! Let's get it!'

The Houston Rockets used the third pick in the 2022 National Basketball Association (NBA) Draft to take Jabari Smith, Jr. from Auburn on Thursday.

The 19-year-old Fayetteville, Georgia native heard NBA Commissioner call his name after the Orlando Magic took Duke’s Paolo Banchero with the top pick and Chet Holmgren from Gonzaga went to the Oklahoma City Thunder with the second pick.

“H-TOWN!! WHATS GOOD!!! Let’s get it!” Smith, who plays the power forward (PF) position, said in a tweet after he walked up to the stage at Barclays Center in Brooklyn to shake Silver’s hand.

According to Houston ABC affiliate KTRK, Smith was on a shortlist of players projected to go No. 1 in the draft.

Citing ESPN, the station reported that the 6-foot-10 Auburn product worked out for the Magic and the Thunder but not the Rockets, raising speculation that he could go to either Orlando or Oklahoma City.

The Rockets hosted a draft watch party at the new POST Houston.

Banchero drew the loudest cheers when he appeared on the screen, but those cheers turned into raucous boos when the Magic nabbed the freshman phenom.

But after the Thunder chose Holmgren, the anticipation and excitement went into overdrive as fans – many of whom sensing that Smith would put on a Rockets hat – counted down the minutes to when the team made its pick at three.

At around 7:20 p.m., Silver took the podium to make the long-awaited announcement: “With the third pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, the Houston Rockets select Jabari Smith, Jr. from Auburn University!”

The cheers that were once for Banchero were now for Smith.

According to an Associated Press (AP) report that was ran by Houston CBS affiliate KHOU, Smith was unfazed about his slight dip in the draft.

“Ultimately I just want to win championships and be labeled as a winner, always deep in the playoffs, somebody always competing for championships," he said in the report. “That’s what I want to be."

The Auburn freshman joins a Rockets team that’s in a throes of a rebuild since shipping James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets and is expected to help last year’s No. 2 pick, Jalen Green, accelerate the process.

Houston finished the 2021-2022 season with an NBA-worst 20-62 record.

Houston NBC affiliate KPRC reported that Smith averaged 16.9 points and 7.4 rebounds in his lone collegiate season, figures good enough to earn him National Freshman of the Year and Southeastern Conference (SEC) Freshman of the Year honors in addition to a Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year accolade.

The Rockets stuck with the SEC when it came to its other two picks in the first round.

At No. 17, LSU’s Tari Eason heard his named called by Silver while the 29th pick Houston acquired from the Minnesota Timberwolves became TyTy Washington, Jr., the second of two Kentucky Wildcats players to be taken in this year's draft.