Mark Vital Jr. (born November 7, 1997) is an American basketball player who last played for the

Ángeles de la Ciudad de México The Ángeles de la Ciudad de México (English: ''Mexico City Angels'') are a Mexican professional basketball team based in Mexico City. The Ángeles are members of the Circuito de Baloncesto de la Costa del Pacífico (CIBACOPA) and play their games ...

of the

Circuito de Baloncesto de la Costa del Pacífico The Pacific Coast Basketball Circuit ( or CIBACOPA), officially known as the Liga Chevron CIBACOPA for sponsorship reasons, is a ten team basketball league based in Northwestern Mexico. The matches take place from March to June. History A leag ...

(CIBACOPA). He played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

Baylor University Baylor University is a Private university, private Baptist research university in Waco, Texas, United States. It was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Te ...

and won a national championship. After playing in the

NBA Summer League The NBA Summer League, also known as the Las Vegas Summer League, is an off-season basketball competition organized by the National Basketball Association (NBA). NBA teams come together to try out different summer rosters instead of their regula ...

with the

Portland Trail Blazers The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (N ...

, he decided to pursue a career in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

Early life

Vital was labeled "middle school basketball's most impressive dunker" by

Yahoo Sports Yahoo! Sports is a sports news website launched by Yahoo! on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from Stats Perform. It employs numerous writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American major sport. ...

in June 2012. He gave up

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

to focus on basketball in eighth grade. Vital began high school at Washington-Marion Magnet High School in

Lake Charles, Louisiana Lake Charles is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, fifth-most populous city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the county seat, parish seat of Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, Calcasieu Parish, located on Lake Charles (Louisiana), Lake Char ...

. As a sophomore, he averaged 16.5 points per game and was a Class 4A All-State selection. For his final two years, Vital transferred to Advanced Preparatory International in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, where he played alongside

Terrance Ferguson Terrance Eugene Ferguson Jr. (born May 17, 1998) is an American professional basketball player who last played for Bashkimi Prizren. He completed high school at Advanced Preparatory International in Dallas, Texas, where he was a top-20 player ...

. He competed for Southern Elite on the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It h ...

circuit. Vital committed to play college basketball for Baylor after his sophomore year of high school. At the end of his high school career, he was a four-star recruit and was considered the top player from Louisiana in the 2016 class by

247Sports 247Sports is an American network of websites that focus mainly on college recruiting, athletic recruitment in college football and college basketball, basketball. It is owned and operated by Paramount Global, Paramount. The website hosts a large ...

College career

Vital

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

his first season at Baylor. While sitting out, he was a member of the

practice squad In gridiron football, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. They serve as extra players during the team's practices, often as part of the scou ...

and developed his offense by playing against

Johnathan Motley Johnathan Landus Motley (born May 4, 1995) is an American professional basketball player for Hapoel Tel Aviv of the Ligat HaAl and the EuroLeague. He played college basketball for the Baylor Bears, where he was a consensus second-team All-Ameri ...

and Ish Wainright. As a redshirt freshman, Vital averaged 6.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. On March 23, 2019, he recorded a career-high 17 points and eight rebounds in an 83–71 loss to first-seeded

Gonzaga Gonzaga may refer to: Places *Gonzaga, Lombardy, commune in the province of Mantua, Italy *Gonzaga, Cagayan, municipality in the Philippines *Gonzaga, Minas Gerais, town in Brazil *Forte Gonzaga, fort in Messina, Sicily Surname *House of Gonza ...

in the NCAA tournament second round. As a sophomore, Vital averaged 7.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and one steal per game, leading his team in rebounds and steals, and was named to the

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

All-Defensive Team and All-Big 12 Honorable Mention. On February 8, 2020, Vital scored a junior season-high 19 points in a 78–70 win against

Oklahoma State Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

. In his junior season, he helped Baylor become one of the best defensive teams in the nation. He averaged 9.1 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, earning Third-team All-Big 12 and Big 12 All-Defensive Team honors. He was one of four finalists for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award. As a senior, Vital averaged 12.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, helping Baylor capture the national championship.

Career statistics

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;", Baylor , style="text-align:center;" colspan="11",

Redshirt , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;", Baylor , 33 , , 18 , , 23.8 , , .481 , , .100 , , .505 , , 5.6 , , 2.2 , , .8 , , .6 , , 6.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;", Baylor , 34 , , 34 , , 27.7 , , .464 , , .182 , , .529 , , 7.2 , , 2.0 , , 1.0 , , .9 , , 7.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", Baylor , 29 , , 24 , , 26.1 , , .459 , , .118 , , .418 , , 6.2 , , 1.8 , , 1.7 , , .6 , , 6.1 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, style="text-align:left;", Baylor , 30 , , 30 , , 23.4 , , .483 , , .000 , , .500 , , 6.7 , , 1.4 , , 1.1 , , .9 , , 5.6 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 126 , , 106 , , 25.3 , , .471 , , .127 , , .496 , , 6.4 , , 1.8 , , 1.1 , , .8 , , 6.4

Professional basketball career

After going undrafted in the

2021 NBA draft The 2021 NBA draft, the 75th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual NBA draft, draft, was held on July 29, 2021, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. The NBA draft returned to Brooklyn after 2020 NBA draft, the pre ...

, Vital signed with the

for NBA Summer League. On September 16, 2022, Vital returned to basketball and signed with

Riesen Ludwigsburg BG Ludwigsburg, for sponsorship reasons MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg (), is a professional basketball club that is based in Ludwigsburg, Germany. The club currently plays in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), the first tier of basketball in Germany. Fou ...

of the

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the German basketball league system, highest level Sports league, league of professional club basketball in German ...

. He was released on September 23. In February 2024, Vital signed with the

of the

(CIBACOPA).

Professional football career

Seattle Seahawks

After revealing he was planning on making the transition to football, on September 2, 2021, Vital signed with the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The club entered the NFL a ...

practice squad as a

tight end The tight end (TE) is an offense (sports), offensive position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football. It is a hybrid that combines the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a receiver (football), receiv ...

. He was released on September 7.

Kansas City Chiefs

Vital signed with the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...

practice squad on September 13, 2021. He signed a reserve/future contract with the Chiefs on February 2, 2022. He was released on July 28, 2022.

References

External links

Baylor Bears bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vital, Mark 1997 births Living people 21st-century American sportsmen American expatriate basketball people in Canada American expatriate basketball people in Mexico American expatriate sportspeople in Azerbaijan American football tight ends American men's basketball players Ángeles de la Ciudad de México players Basketball players from Louisiana Baylor Bears men's basketball players Expatriate basketball people in Azerbaijan Kansas City Chiefs players Players of American football from Lake Charles, Louisiana Seattle Seahawks players Small forwards Sudbury Five players