By: Theresa Christine Etim
Photo by Diane Picchiottino on Unsplash.
It’s draft pick time! And you know what that means.. new players for new teams with fresh opportunities.
Thursday, June 22 was the first day of the 2023 NBA Draft and while the summer solstice was the day before, the draft is what everyone is talking about.
What’s garnering attention, is the fact that the NBA drafted its first set of twins at the same time. But what’s specifically being discussed is that top five players were picked and four of those individuals came from non-college, rec or minor league teams.
Photo by Hannah Gibbs on Unsplash.
What makes this so peculiar is that draft picks are expected to-and usually come from-top college basketball teams. Shaquille O’Neal and Michael Jordan are prime examples.
So as you can see, the college-level talent expectations are high.
But this year is special.
The 2023 drafts first pick sees 7’2 French player Victor Wembanyama, joining the San Antonio Spurs after playing for the French national team at youth level.
Scoot Henderson was the NBA’s third pick after playing for the NBA G League Ignite, a developmental basketball team in the NBA G League that helps young players develop their skills for NBA prospects.
But it’s the next two players who are getting people talking.
Picks four and five twins Amen and Ausar Thompson are two players that were not only born one after the other, but drafted the same way after only playing for Overtime Elite, a league of teams for teens and young adults that also assist players for professional basketball preparation.
Amen will play for the Houston Rockets and Ausar for the Detroit Pistons, who the latter teams General Manager Troy Weaver sees as a special talent depsite such a unique story according to KGET.com.
“When you see somebody elite, you know it,” he said.
The only exception is missing draft pick number two’s Brandon Miller, who played for the University of Alabama’s Division I basketball team, Alabama Crimson Tide, leaving an impressive tenure as a top player on that team as well.
While lots of top draft picks come from colleges around the US as top athletes of those teams, 2023’s draft pick teaches the NBA and it’s fans that not all athletes are cut from that same cloth. And by the looks of some of the promise and special talent of this year’s draft, that might be a good thing.
