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Dan Hurley Shares Special Moment With Stephon Castle After He's Drafted by Spurs

Castle played for Hurley at UConn for the 2023-24 season, winning a championship under the head coach.
Josh Wilson|
Dan Hurley applauds Stephon Castle, drafted by the San Antonio Spurs with the fourth pick in the NBA draft
Dan Hurley applauds Stephon Castle, drafted by the San Antonio Spurs with the fourth pick in the NBA draft

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San Antonio SpursUConn Huskies

The San Antonio Spurs, with the fourth pick in the 2024 NBA draft, selected guard Stephon Castle out of UConn, who was a member of the national championship-winning team just months ago.

As Castle stood up to walk up to the podium and shake the hand of league commissioner Adam Silver, cameras panned to Dan Hurley, his head coach who has now won back-to-back titles with the Huskies. Hurley was standing and applauding his player for moving up to the professional ranks.

Hurley, in an interview with ESPN alongside Castle after the pick, called him the "perfect" player for the Spurs to draft. He adds to a young core that features the defending Rookie of the Year winner Victor Wembanyama.

In his lone freshman season, Castle averaged 11.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game. He was named the Big East Rookie of the Year and named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team. Importantly, he increased his production in the tournament, averaging 12.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in March Madness.

A few minutes later, Castle's collegiate teammate Donovan Clingan was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the No. 7 pick.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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