Player Bio

Kelly Tyler Corness Olynyk was born on April 19, 1991 in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. The son of Ken and Arlene Olynyk, Kelly has two sisters (Jesse and Maya). His father is a longtime basketball coach and was the head coach at the University of Toronto from 1989 to 2002. Both of his sisters played college basketball in Canada, while his mother worked for the Toronto Raptors from 1995 to 2004. Olynyk played his high school basketball at South Kamloops High, where he was named the Basketball BC Outstanding High School Player of the Year as a senior. He led South Kamloops to a 36-2 record. Olynyk is a member of the Board of Ambassadors for Shooting Touch, an "international organization which uses the power of basketball to educate and empower at-risk youth and communities." Follow Olynyk on Twitter and Instagram @KellyOlynyk. Olynyk moved from Canada to Gonzaga to play college basketball. The 6-foot-10 forward spent two seasons primarily coming off the Bulldogs bench. He started four games as a sophomore and put up 5.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per contest. The seven-footer scored in double digits in five games. After the season, Olynyk agreed to redshirt in the 2011-12 season to improve his game for his junior season. The year off seemed to work and the forward returned to win the West Coast Conference (WCC) Player of the Year. He led the Zags with 17.8 points to go along with 7.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists. The team went undefeated in the conference play and won the WCC Tournament. In two NCAA Tournament games, Olynyk averaged 23.5 points and 9.5 rebounds, but the Zags, the top-seeded team in the West Region, suffered an upset against Wichita State. He decided to forgo his senior season and declared for the 2013 NBA Draft, where he was chosen with the 13th overall pick by the Dallas Mavericks.