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ESPN's Scott Van Pelt Ripped NBA Over Its Ridiculous Hat Problem at Draft
The first round of the 2025 NBA draft took place on Wednesday night and once it was in the books ESPN's Scott Van Pelt took a moment on SportsCenter to rip the league for something ridiculous that keeps happening each year—drafted players wearing the hat of team that they're not going to be playing for.
This keeps happening because the league won't allow a trade to be official until it approves the trade. When teams agree to swap picks on draft night, players who will soon be traded are still forced to take the stage and wear that team's hat even though everyone in the world knows that's not the team they're going to be on in a few days. That also means their special night and all the pictures taken of them on stage in the biggest moment of their young lives will feature them wearing a hat that means nothing to them.
That happened a bunch of times Wednesday night, which led to ESPN's Scott Van Pelt rightfully ripping the NBA for allowing this to continue being a thing:
"I'm gonna scream about the 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. I don't know why they can't fix it."
Scott Van Pelt: "I'm gonna scream about the 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. I don't know why they can't fix it." #NBADraft #NBA pic.twitter.com/BffUpklnVO
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 26, 2025
Many fans agreed with Van Pelt:
Amen. Dumbest thing in sports @NBA https://t.co/6ZZT4sXdNj
— Tyler Mina (@MinaTyler36302) June 26, 2025
PLEASE FIX IT https://t.co/adhxgAcLCO
— Taylor Tannebaum (@TaylorTannebaum) June 26, 2025
This one reason I don’t like watching the NBA Draft,
— Da_Midget (@Da_Midget90) June 26, 2025
They draft just to trade the players https://t.co/DjXsHAJfAw
Preach. https://t.co/YqHfjSlJ2s
— db (@DaveBake_) June 26, 2025
Was screaming this. It is beyond moronic https://t.co/2iAkhstnmp pic.twitter.com/s5orlomEZE
— Dave (@TestudoDave) June 26, 2025
The NBA needs to figure this out, and fast. Hopefully this timely, and very passionate, rant by Van Pelt leads to the league making a change.
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Andy Nesbitt is the assistant managing editor of audience engagement at Sports Illustrated. He works closely with the Breaking and Trending News team to shape SI’s daily coverage across all sports. A 20-year veteran of the sports media business, he has worked for Fox Sports, For the Win, The Boston Globe and NBC Sports, having joined SI in February 2023. Nesbitt is a golf fanatic who desperately wants to see the Super Bowl played on a Saturday night.