20-year-old Armenian basketball player Yura Melikyan has been selected in the 2026 NBA G League International Draft by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the affiliate of the NBA’s Houston Rockets. Melikyan was taken with the 16th pick of the 20-player draft, securing his G League rights and placing him one rung closer to the professional game’s highest level.
Standing 6’7″, Melikyan is a member of the Armenia National Basketball Team, a natural center who can also operate as a power forward. His selection marks one of the most significant steps for Armenian basketball in recent memory.
The selection does not carry a guaranteed contract or an automatic path to the NBA. What it does grant is access. The G League serves as the NBA’s primary proving ground, where young players earn meaningful minutes, adjust to the American game, and develop directly under the eyes of scouts, coaches, and front-office decision-makers. For Melikyan, the Vipers now hold the exclusive right to sign him, and the club is expected to assess him further through summer competition before any roster commitment is made.
The news reached Melikyan far from home. He was with the national team in Norway when word of his selection came through in the early hours of the morning, his teammates delivering it well after midnight, long after the day’s basketball was done.
He turns 21 in October. After beginning his professional career at home in Armenia, he has spent the past two seasons building his résumé abroad, first in the Latvian league with Latvijas Universit?te and later in Switzerland with Starwings, where he posted steady scoring and rebounding numbers across both stops.
His most compelling work, however, has come in national colors. Melikyan has anchored Armenia’s frontcourt through recent EuroBasket pre-qualifying, where he has been a force on the glass and a steady scorer while adding rim protection at the defensive end. He was the driving force of Armenia’s youth national team at the 2025 FIBA U20 European Championship Division B, held in Yerevan, where he ranked among the tournament’s leading scorers.
The Vipers are among the G League’s most accomplished franchises, with multiple league titles to their name and one of the longest-running single-affiliate partnerships in the league, tied to Houston since 2009. For Melikyan, the road ahead now runs through their system.
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