Buddy Hield Is Actually Older Than the NBA Has Him Listed
The NBA has some explaining to do.
On Monday, Kings guard Buddy Hield celebrated his birthday. He and his team have been enjoying a quality season so far, but Dec. 17 was not their night as the Timberwolves beat them by 27.
But hey, at least Hield got to celebrate turning 25-years-old. Or so the NBA thought.
It turns out, the league is completely wrong about the age it has listed for Hield. The Freeport, Bahamas native says both his passport and driver's license he submitted to the Kings list his actual birthday, which is Dec. 17, 1992. Not 1993. Meaning Hield turned 26 on Monday, and not 25, the age listed on his NBA.com player bio.
Screenshot from NBA.com
"That's their fault, not my fault," Hield told NBC Sports. "The first time I saw it on Wikipedia, my mom said, 'Why do they have your age wrong?' I said, 'I have no idea.'"
Why do they have his age wrong? Where did they get 1993 as his birth year?
And before you start assuming this is Hield admitting to being older after getting busted for lying, consider that team vice president Vlade Divac told NBC Sports the Kings have Hield's information all correct in their own files.
"I came over with a passport," Hield said. "My passport has 1992 on it. My driver's license has 1992 on it. I just think people got their information from Wikipedia or wherever, and they just went with it. They just got it wrong.”
Hield moved to the United States in 2010, according to the NBA's website, but who knows if we can trust that anymore. He played college basketball at Oklahoma for four years, and he told NBC Sports he thought all of his information was listed correctly during his time there.
But at some point along the way from the Sooners, to the New Orleans Pelicans—who drafted him with the No. 6 pick in 2016—to the Kings, somebody decided to make him a year younger.
But Hield didn't lie about his age. Unlike some people.
