Thirteen players have received invitations to attend the 2025 NBA draft and sit in the green room, sources told ESPN, headlined by projected No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg of Duke.
Flagg, Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey, VJ Edgecombe, Tre Johnson, Khaman Maluach, Jeremiah Fears, Kon Knueppel, Kasparas Jakucionis, Egor Demin, Carter Bryant, Derik Queen and Asa Newell received the first batch of 13 invites sent out Tuesday.
Another 11 invites are expected to be sent out in waves, a source told ESPN.
The green room is a staging area located in front of the NBA draft podium, where players, their families and agents await commissioner Adam Silver to announce a player’s name upon selection.
Players are allowed to invite six people to sit at their tables.
The process of deciding whom to invite to the NBA draft involves communication with the presidents or general managers of teams that pick throughout the first round. Teams are asked to vote on the top 25 players they expect to hear their names called first. This is to ensure players aren’t sitting for very long before a national television audience.
Receiving an invitation is considered a positive sign for a player’s draft stock. However, there have been instances in the past of prospects falling to the second round while sitting in the green room — such as Bol Bol, Deyonta Davis, Nic Claxton, Maciej Lampe, Rashard Lewis and others.
Last year, two players — Johnny Furphy and Kyle Filipowski — were among the first 20 players invited, but ultimately ended up slipping to the second round.
Starting last year, the NBA Draft is being conducted over two days. The first round will be held June 25 while the second round is June 26, both at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Additional scrutiny will likely be placed on the final players invited to the green room, to avoid a scenario where an invited player and their family need to wait a full extra day to hear their name called.
In ESPN’s latest mock draft, all 13 of the initial batch of invited players are projected to be lottery picks, except Georgia‘s Asa Newell.
Noa Essengue, a projected top-10 pick, is currently competing in the playoffs with Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany, which may hinder his ability to attend the draft altogether. Game five of the German BBL finals isn’t scheduled until June 26, the day after the first round of the draft.
Source: espn.com