Zakai Zeigler turns 24 on Aug. 2. He'll spend the day flying to Germany. On his last day in Knoxville, he spent it giving back to a place he calls home.
Zeigler was back in town to host his second annual I AM G.I.A.N.T. Basketball Camp on Aug. 1 at Webb School of Knoxville.
"It makes me feel really good, seeing all the campers, everybody here," he said of the E3 Camps event. "It's my last day before I go back overseas, so it's a great way to spend it."
He played four seasons for Tennessee basketball, and left as the program's all-time leader in assists (747) and steals (251), averaging 11.3 points, 5.4 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.8 steals across 138 games from 2021 to 2025. He earned two SEC Defensive Player of the Year awards and three All-SEC
selections, and became the first player in conference history with four SEC All-Defensive Team honors.
G.I.A.N.T. stands for "Gettin' To It And Not Talking," a fitting motto for a player with a résumé like his, despite being listed at 5-foot-9.
"Always believe that you can do something, whatever it is," Zeigler said. "If you think you can do it, you can do it."
He is fresh off playing for the San Antonio Spurs in this year's NBA Summer League, where he spent two weeks in July with two other former Vols, Ja'Kobi Gillespie and Igor Milicic Jr.
Milicic and Zeigler were teammates in 2024-25, but this was his first time spending time with his successor in Gillespie.
"It was just like a full circle moment," Zeigler said. "It was my first time actually hanging out with him, being around him. He was a really good guy. Even since the league ended, we still communicate."
Before summer league was a full season in France. Zeigler signed with Nanterre 92 of the Betclic Elite, France's premier professional league, after not getting picked in the 2025 NBA Draft. He averaged 7.1 points and 5.6 assists in 21.2 minutes per game.
It was his first season as a professional, and it doubled as his introduction to international basketball. Last fall, he suited up for Puerto Rico's national team in FIBA World Cup qualifying, appearing in four games.
What's next is Germany. Zeigler signed with the Hamburg Towers of the Basketball Bundesliga, a move the club announced July 28. He said he's excited to head back to Europe, but before he left, he had to give back.
Zeigler and E3 Camps founder Laurence Bowers, a former Missouri forward and All-Big 12 and All-SEC pick, hosted 100 kids ages 8 to 14 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Zeigler spent the day in the mix with the campers, and another VFL, Jeronne Maymon, who played for Tennessee basketball from 2010 to 2014, also worked the camp.
The camp reminded Zeigler of his own start.
"I went to Danny Green's camp when I was a little kid," he said. "Some of my lifelong friends, I met them at that camp. So having my own version of that now, it's like a full circle moment again."
He also couldn't leave the United States without stopping by to see coach Rick Barnes and the current roster. A day earlier, Zeigler, Gillespie and fellow VFLs Felix Okpara, Jordan Gainey and Amaree Abram scrimmaged against the Vols' new roster.
"At first, they didn't really know what it was going to be like," Zeigler said. "But once we stepped on the court, we started talking a little smack, and it turned into, all right, now we're going to battle. That's really what we wanted to see, how competitive they were."
Based on what he saw, he knows the program is in good hands.
"They've got a lot of talent. They're really good," Zeigler said. "They're still in the summer, so they've got a lot of ways to go, but they play for Rick Barnes so they'll be good no matter what."
The bond with Knoxville runs much deeper than basketball. When a fire destroyed his family's Long Island home in February 2022, Tennessee fans and the university helped raise more than $350,000, enough for his mother and family to relocate to Knoxville and buy a new home there.
"A lot of people ask me why I go back, but there's nothing like it," Zeigler said. "You don't get this type of love anywhere, whether it's the supermarket, the mall or just going into the gas station. Everybody's super nice, everybody holds a bunch of love for each other."
Xavier Burton is a sports intern for Knox News. Email: Xavier.burton@knoxnews.com
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Zakai Zeigler reflects on NBA Summer League, Tennessee basketball, what's next
