Danny Wolf bet on himself when he made the decision to transfer from Yale to Michigan.

He wanted to prove he could play on the perimeter. He wanted to prove he could play against the best in the Big Ten. He wanted to prove he had the skill set to play at the next level.

Wolf proved all that and more, and it paid off in a major way Wednesday when he was taken by the Brooklyn Nets with the No. 27 overall pick in the NBA Draft.

“It’s a dream come true,” an emotional Wolf said on the ESPN broadcast. “It’s really hard to put into words. I worked so hard to get here.”

The selection made Wolf the 32nd first-round pick in program history and the first draft pick of head coach Dusty May’s tenure. May and his five assistant coaches were in attendance at the Barclays Center in New York to support Wolf, who was one of 24 players to receive a green room invite and shed some tears with his family when his long wait finally came to an end.

It also marked the 10th draft in 13 years a Michigan player was chosen. Since 2013, Wolf is the 17th Wolverine to be drafted and the 12th first-round pick over that span, joining Trey Burke (2013), Tim Hardaway Jr. (2013), Nik Stauskas (2014), Mitch McGary (2014), Caris LeVert (2016), D.J. Wilson (2017), Moritz Wagner (2018), Jordan Poole (2019), Franz Wagner (2021), Jett Howard (2023) and Kobe Bufkin (2023).

Not bad for an unranked and unheralded high school recruit from Illinois who struggled during his freshman year in college. Following a breakout sophomore season at Yale, Wolf hit the portal, landed at his dream school and became one of the most impactful transfers in college basketball.

A 7-footer with guard-like skills, Wolf made the transition from the Ivy League to the Big Ten look seamless. He elevated Michigan’s offense as a supersized playmaker and formed a formidable pick-and-roll tandem with fellow big man and draft hopeful Vlad Goldin.

During his lone season with the Wolverines, Wolf produced plenty of highlights with his ball-handling, crafty passing and step-back jumpers. He averaged 13.2 points and a Big Ten-best 9.7 rebounds. He set career-high marks in assists (3.6) and field goal percentage (49.7%). His 15 double-doubles were tied for the most in the conference. He earned All-Big Ten second-team honors and was one of five finalists for the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year award.

Though turnovers were an issue and he has more to prove as a defender and shooter (33.6% on 3-pointers, 59.4% on free throws), Wolf’s ability to create and operate out of ball screens at his size intrigued NBA teams.

“Danny Wolf is really a point center and an initiator of offense. You don’t say this very often about a 7-footer, but he’s a pick-and-roll ball handler,” ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas said. “He’s very skilled, an excellent rebounder and a very creative passer that can be a facilitator. … He did turn it over a fair amount…but, man, he delivered it a lot as well.

“He’s an excellent basketball player that knows how to play. The only thing is he’s not an elite NBA athlete, but he gets a lot of things done out on the floor.”

Wolf, 21, will be part of an infusion of young talent that’s joining a rebuilding Brooklyn team that finished 26-56 last season and missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year. He was the last piece of the Nets’ first-round draft haul that included three guards — BYU’s Egor Demin, Nolan Traoré (France) and Ben Saraf (Israel) — and North Carolina wing Drake Powell.

After making the leap and proving himself at Michigan, Wolf will look to do it again at the highest level with the Nets.

“Everything I’ve done is predicated on hard work,” Wolf told NBA TV. “Nothing is going to come easy in basketball, and I’ve worked for everything thus far. I’m just super excited to be in Brooklyn to do the same things that have helped me get here and that’ll help me do what I want to do in this league.

“They took a chance on me. I’m going to serve true to that and put my head down and work to do some great things.”