Keaton Wagler reveals strange story about “weird” exchange with an NBA team

Keaton Wagler has finally made his NBA dream come true. The Illini guard was selected fifth overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2026 draft, becoming yet another first-round pick from the University of Illinois. After being selected, Wagler spoke with ClutchPoints’ Tomer Azarly about a rather strange pearl from his predraft experience. As we all know, all NBA prospects go through predraft interviews and workouts with a variety of NBA teams before the night of the draft.  Keaton Wagler shared that an unnamed team used photos of random individuals in the midst of portraying photos of Wagler‘s family

Keaton shared, “There was one team that put up pictures of my family and me, and a couple of them just weren’t even my family,” he said. “I was like, ‘That’s weird.’ They asked me like, ‘Who are these people?’ and I was like, ‘I actually don’t know who those people are.'”

Who was this team? Was it the Chicago Bulls, a team that Wagler had publicly met with? Was it one of the teams in the Lottery, like the Brooklyn Nets or the Sacramento Kings?

Other weird stories

In the past, there have been plenty of weird draft stories. For example, former Bulls head coach and New York Knicks Executive Phil Jackson pressured Dennis Smith Jr. into eating an Octopus tentacle in a pre-draft dinner.

It seems that Keaton Wagler ended up where he was most comfortable, at the number five pick with the Los Angeles Clippers. Keaton will have a great opportunity to play alongside all-stars Darius Garland and Kawhi Leonard.

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