The following two statements are true. On Wednesday, the Clippers (through the Hawks) drafted center Narcisse Ngoy with the No. 57 pick. In 2027, Ngoy will play for Auburn.
What?
Los Angeles’s selection of Ngoy Thursday confused fans and observers far and wide, reportedly up to and including Ngoy himself—who affirmed his intent to play for the Tigers in `27 in a statement.
“I’m told that Narcisse Ngoy was not expecting to be drafted—by the Clippers or any team,” Law Murray of The Athleticreported Thursday afternoon, corroborating reporting from SI’s Kevin Sweeney. “It’s been described to me as ‘an unprecedented and fluid situation’ but Clippers front office has been in touch since the draft and… conversations will be ongoing on this front.”
Here’s a look at the quirk that will enable one of the more unusual individual seasons in college basketball history to unfold this year.
Ngoy is a beneficiary of a recent rule change
On July 13, Ngoy will turn 22. The fact that he will be 22 at the start of the next season, per the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement, makes him automatically eligible to be taken in the NBA draft without forfeiting his college eligibility. He would forfeit his college eligibility if he entered the draft early, but he didn’t.
What this effectively means in this day and age—where the money being thrown around college basketball now attracts young players that previously would’ve plied their trade in Europe—is that NBA teams can now draft players and stash them in college. Los Angeles, therefore, will hold Ngoy’s rights while he suits up for Auburn—previously, it might’ve done the same while Ngoy played in his native France.
How good is Ngoy, anyway?
Playing for Poitiers Basket 86 in Élite 2—the French second division—Ngoy averaged, per RealGM, 9.7 points, 11.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in 24.5 minutes per game. Those numbers in a professional league—put up by a 21-year-old—seem like a fair bet to translate to the SEC.
He’ll join a Tigers team looking to recover from a down 2026 under new coach Steven Pearl—Auburn went 22-16 for its worst record in five years, although it did pull itself together late in the season and win the NIT. Joining Ngoy in the Tigers’ class of newcomers will be ex-Creighton center Owen Freeman, ex-Troy forward Thomas Dowd, and high school guard Caleb Williams (not that one). It took four years for Steven’s father Bruce Pearl to make an NCAA tournament with Auburn—can Steven get there quicker?
Ngoy playing in college while a team holds his draft rights recalls the long-ago plight of Larry Bird
In 1978, Bird averaged 30 points and 11.5 rebounds per game for Indiana State, leading the Sycamores to a 23-9 record and (briefly) the AP Top 5. He caught the eye of the Celtics, who drafted him sixth before his senior season. Boston held his rights as he led Indiana State to the national championship game—a loophole the NBA soon closed.
In effect, then, Bird was college basketball’s first draft-and-stash, starting a trend that would continue in a different capacity 47 years later.
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