Deandre Edoneille Ayton (born July 23, 1998) is a Bahamian professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played for the Arizona Wildcats in the Pac-12 Conference in the 2017–18 season and was a consensus five-star prospect in the Class of 2017, as well as a McDonald's All-American. Ayton was selected with the first overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft by the Suns.
Ayton was born in Nassau, Bahamas to Nigerian father Alvin and mother Andrea, a Bahamian of Jamaican descent. He has four siblings. Ayton was first scouted by an Annual Bahamian basketball magazine called the Bahamian Basketball Yearbook. At the age of 12, Ayton was scouted by the All Bahamian Brand who were visiting Bahamas Academy High School, a tiny private school then located on Wulff Road in Nassau. The scouts came when Ayton, a tuba and soccer player, was at band practice, rather than basketball practice, but were impressed by his 6'5" frame. In order to properly train for basketball, Ayton had to work part-time jobs to pay the $100 necessary for training camp. Ayton later moved to San Diego, California to play high school basketball.