One of the iconic moments of any pro sport’s draft is when a just-picked youngster steps up on stage with the commissioner to pose for a photo with a jersey and hat from his or her new team.
It’s a symbolic start to a new career, one the players can look back on later with a sense of pride.
Except when they know they’ll never play a single game for the team that drafted them.
The NBA has an odd custom where draft-day trades are officially announced by the commissioner after the picks are made. Which can lead to what ESPN anchor Scott Van Pelt calls the league’s uncomfortable ‘hat situation.’
‘The league’s too smart to have the moment that they’ve waited their whole life for be a picture in the wrong hat. It just doesn’t make sense,’ Van Pelt ranted post-draft on SportsCenter.
Awful Announcing picked up on the disdain, which was apparently shared by many other NBA fans.
Of the 30 first-round picks in the 2025 NBA draft, 10 were traded shortly after they donned their original team’s hat – including No. 10 Khaman Maluach (from Houston to Phoenix), No. 11 Cedric Coward (from Portland to Memphis) and No. 13 Derik Queen (from Atlanta to New Orleans).
‘I don’t know why they can’t fix it,’ Van Pelt said.
There’s really no reason the NBA does things this way.
Other sports reveal trades before draft picks are made, though Eli Manning ended up in an awkward situation at the 2004 NFL Draft, posing with a San Diego Chargers jersey when he was selected No. 1 overall – while awaiting an official trade minutes later that sent him to Giants for Philip Rivers, who New York took with the fourth pick.