Former Florida Gators guard Alijah Martin is fresh off his 2025 national championship season with coach Todd Golden’s program. The Summit, Mississippi, native, along with his former teammates, such as Walter Clayton Jr., is in this year’s NBA Draft, scheduled for June 25 and 26 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
As he gears up for a potential milestone event in his young career, Martin is getting support from his close ones, especially his family. Alijah is the son of Tina Martin and Randall Ridley, as per the official Florida Gators’ website. He also has two siblings in Alayshia and Jaylen Martin, and is believed to have come from a family of athletes who played different sports.
According to Essentially Sports, Martin’s mother, Tina, is a middle school teacher and a youth basketball coach. Martin’s teammates apparently call her “Mama Martin.” She has proactively supported his son’s basketball career since the beginning, and continues to do so, as he recently wrapped up his college basketball career. There is not much information publicly available about his father, Randall.
The 23-year-old is coming off of his fifth and final year of collegiate hoops, first and last with the Gators, where he averaged 14.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.5 steals per contest en route to their national championship berth.
Alijah Martin’s Mother, Tina, Says His Love For The Game Started Early
In an interview with wptv.com in 2023, when Alijah Martin was still playing for the Florida Atlantic Owls, his mother, Tina, was interviewed about the budding two-way college basketball standout. She then shared that Alijah Martin fell in love with the sport of basketball even before he could perform actions such as walking, a testament to his deep love of the game.
“I was a basketball coach when Martin was born, so he had a basketball in his hands before he could walk. I used to laugh because she would just bang him up real good, and I was saying to myself, ‘Oh, the day is going to come.’ Because he was always tall, and sure enough, that day came,” she said.
As per the second round of the 2025 NBA Draft on Thursday, June 26, Alijah Martin will be continuing his basketball career in the league as he was selected by coach Darko Rajakovic’s Toronto Raptors with the 39th overall pick of the draft.
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