BYU Cougars guard Egor Demin is riding into the 2025 NBA Draft following a massive Freshman year with the school, averaging 10.6 points per game after transferring from Real Madrid, whom he helped win the 2024 Adidas Next Generation Tournament.
The Moscow-born player, who was included in the Big 12 All-Freshman Team, would not be where he is today if not for his family, coming from a long line of Basketball players who helped him to where he is today as he prepares to make the next step in his career.
‘My Mom’s Mentality Brought Me That Huge Passion.’ Who Are Egor Demin’s Parents?
Being projected as a late first-round to early second-round pick in the 2025 Draft, the 6’9 BYU Guard was born into a basketball-mad family in Moscow, Russia, inheriting both his family’s talents and love of the sport as an NBA fanatic growing up.
“It was really hard to think about the NBA being in Moscow, being in Russia, because it’s really far, it’s like being in space. It’s just a different world. It was like, How can I get there? And I don’t see that trajectory. I don’t see that path.” Demin explained to ESPN.
6’9 Freshman Point Guard Egor Demin ( @whoisegor3 ) has impressed several NBA teams in draft workouts 🔥 Teams have him high on their draft boards with his passing reads and the ways he’s been shooting the ball in workouts @ZGonzales93 pic.twitter.com/67Vhk96kHu
— Swish Cultures (@swishcultures_) June 6, 2025
Egor’s father, Vladimir, was a former professional basketball player who applied his trade in Russia at the club level, and also made the National youth team in the early years of his career. However, he retired right around the time Egor was born, in 2006.
With his father’s encouragement, the BYU Guard trained at the Moscow Basketball Academy, which is commonly referred to as Trinta and known for producing top Russian players; however, it was his mother who really made him consider going pro.
“My mom’s mentality kind of brought me that huge passion where I’m like, ‘OK, this is something that I want to do through my life, and I got to take it real serious,'” Demin explained.
While not much is known about Egor’s mother, Natalia, similar to his father, Natalia also played Basketball at a high level until she was eighteen.
FINAL: 24 players invited to the NBA Draft green room thus far:
Cooper Flagg
Dylan Harper
Ace Bailey
VJ Edgecombe
Tre Johnson
Khaman Maluach
Jeremiah Fears
Kon Knueppel
Kasparas Jakucionis
Egor Demin
Carter Bryant
Derik Queen
Asa Newell
Noa Essengue
Collin Murray-Boyles
Thomas… pic.twitter.com/YxAsE5FgeA— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) June 19, 2025
Outside of his biological family in Russia, the Cougars Guard also found a second family during his time at BYU with former NBA player Travis Hansen, who took him under his wing when he first came to the United States after transferring from Real Madrid.
“Egor started coming over when he first moved here. It’s an opportunity to hang out with us and feed him. He’s our adopted son,” Hansen explained, during Demin’s time at BYU.
“This is so important for me, as I spent the last three years in Spain with no family around me. Coming here in a new environment and surroundings without anybody and to have a place to come, and be with my second family, it is just a pleasure.” Demin explained.
While Demin viewed the NBA as a “different world” growing up in Russia, with the support of his biological family, and his family at BYU, the Cougars Guard looks set to achieve his dream and hear his name called out in the 2025 NBA Draft.
