New York Knicks announce signing of Luke Kornet to two-way contract

Luke Kornet, a Lexington native who starred in college at Vanderbilt, has signed a two-way contract with the New York Knicks, the team announced on Monday.

NBA rosters are expanding from 15 to 17 players this season under the new collective bargaining agreement. The 16th and 17th roster spots will be two-way contracts. Those players will go back and forth from the NBA to the G League, formerly the NBA Development League. New York’s G League affiliate is the Westchester Knicks.

Kornet, listed by the Knicks at 7-foot-1 and 250 pounds, averaged 13.2 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks as a senior at Vanderbilt. He shot 47.2 percent from the field, 32.7 percent from three-point range and 85.7 percent from the free-throw line.

He is currently playing for New York’s smmer league squad in Orlando, Fla., and averaged 6.0 points and 3.5 rebounds over 18.8 minutes through two games.

Kornet, whose family moved away from Lexington when he was 4, has ties to the city that span several generations.

His grandfather, Milton Kornet, was an associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at UK from 1963 until retiring in 1999.

His father, Frank Kornet, was a standout player for Lexington Catholic. He played for Vanderbilt in the late 1980s.

This story was originally published July 3, 2017 at 2:04 PM with the headline "New York Knicks announce signing of Luke Kornet to two-way contract."