Nets top 2026 draft pick Mikel Brown Jr. makes long-awaited NBA debut after ankle injury

For the Nets, Wednesday was finally MBJ Day.Rookie Mikel Brown Jr.— their highest-drafted player in 16 years, and the linchpin of their rebuild — finally made his delayed debut.The No.

6 pick in the June draft, Brown competed in summer league, but rolled his left ankle three weeks ago in training camp.After missing the first three preseason games, the 20-year-old was finally cleared and was available off the bench in Wednesday’s preseason finale in Miami.“Yeah, I feel amazing,” Brown told The Post before scoring 15 points in 18 minutes of the bench in the Nets’ 144-128 preseason loss to the Heat in Miami.

“Very exciting because I’ve been waiting and itching to play for the longest to this point.So I’m glad to see all the work is paying off and just continuing to stay on it and remain healthy.“[I’d been doing] strength work, getting the strength in the ankle back, strengthening the muscles around it.

I’ve been attacking it every single day.Just to be able to just go out there and just go play basketball again, it’s going to mean the world.”Finally getting Brown on the court — even if it’s off the bench and on a minutes restriction — will mean the world to the Nets.Two years of tanking garnered Egor Dëmin last year and now Brown.But the rolled ankle kept Brown out of their wins over the Hornets, 76ers and Wizards.“It’s very difficult because you’re watching your teammates playing.

You’re like ‘I want to be out there.I wanna be playing with them,’ ” Brown told The Post.

“So, to be able to finally [scratch] that itch and to be able to go out there and do what I do best, it means the world to me.”Over the first few weeks of preseason, while Brown was sidelined, he has made the best use of that time not only strengthening his ankle, but watching and learning.That meant not only learning coach Jordi Fernández’s system as best he could from the sidelines, but the tendencies of teammates like Michael Porter Jr.and...