Player Bio

Poeltl was born in Vienna, Austria, to Martina and Rainer Poeltl in 1995. Both of his parents were members of the Austrian national volleyball teams. He has a sister named Miriam. Poeltl took an interest in basketball at an early age and played one season for the Arkadia Traiskirchen Lions of the Austrian Bundesliga in 2013-14. During that campaign, Poeltl posted per-game averages of 12.7 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocked shots. He also played for Austria in the 2013 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship. In seven contests, he averaged 15.4 points, 12.3 boards and 2.6 blocks. Poeltl was recruited by a number of United States colleges and eventually committed to play for the University of Utah. In 2016, he became the first Austrian-born player to make an appearance in the NBA. Learn more about Poeltl by following him on Instagram (@jakob). Poeltl was named the 2015-16 Pac-12 Player of the Year while at Utah. He was also named to the 2015-16 All-American Second Team and the 2016 All-Pac-12 Tournament First Team. He helped Utah to the second round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament. The Vienna, Austria native led the Pac-12 in 2015-16 in two-point field goals (228) and field-goal percentage (.646). Furthermore, he led the Utes in points (620), points per game (17.2), rebounds (327), offensive rebounds (102), defensive rebounds (225), rebounds per game (9.1), offensive rebounds per game (2.8), defensive rebounds per game (6.3), blocks (56) and blocks per game (1.6). Poeltl entered the 2016 NBA Draft after his second season at Utah. He was chosen in the first round (ninth overall) by the Toronto Raptors.