By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
A complicated situation for Noa Essengue and Ben Saraf has been confirmed by the initial calls for the green room attached to the 2025 NBA Draft presented by State Farm.
Thirteen players were invited, including Lithuanian Kasparas Jakucionis and Russian Egor Demin, as reported by ESPN’s Jonathan Givony on Tuesday.
The list of calls stretches from Cooper Flagg, projected to be selected with the first overall pick by the Dallas Mavericks, to Ace Bailey, Carter Bryant, V.J. Edgecombe, Jeremiah Fears, Dylan Harper, Tre Johnson, Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach, Asa Newell, and Derik Queen, in addition to Jakucionis and Demin. More invitations are expected to be sent over the next few days.
Considering the green room typically features lottery picks or players likely to be selected further down in the first round, Essengue and perhaps Saraf would also be candidates for the list. However, both promising youngsters are currently focused on ratiopharm Ulm contending for the German League championship in the easyCredit BBL Playoffs 2025.
In a best-of-five series of the Semifinals, Ulm is tied 2-2 with FIT/One Wurzburg Baskets and will play a do-or-die Game 5 in ratiopharm Arena on Thursday. The winner will advance and face top-seeded FC Bayern Munich in a best-of-five championship series, tipping off on Sunday. A possible Game 5 would be played on June 26, on the second day of the annual NBA draft. That scenario would probably exclude the 18-year-old French forward and the 19-year-old Israeli combo guard from the green room.
Play In tournament
ALBA Berlin – Syntainics MBC 81-78
EWE Baskets Oldenburg – Rostock Seawolves 95-83
Syntainics MBC – EWE Baskets Oldenburg 110-95
BBL Playoffs
Quarterfinals (best of five)
FC Bayern Munich – Syntainics MBC 3-0 (78-60, 80-65, 80-69)
Niners Chemnitz – MLP Academics Heidelberg 1-3 (90-93, 70-74, 97-88, 64-92)
ratiopharm Ulm – ALBA Berlin 3-0 (94-83, 74-62, 93-84)
Basketball Lowen Braunschweig – FIT/One Wurzburg Baskets 2-3 (92-79, 90-94, 80-75, 72-79, 88-97)
Semifinals (best of five)
FC Bayern Munich – MLP Academics Heidelberg 3-1 (90-95, 90-61, 98-68, 94-82)
ratiopharm Ulm – FIT/One Wurzburg Baskets 2-2 (91-87, 77-87, 99-86, 77-78)
Finals (best of five)
FC Bayern Munich – ratiopharm Ulm / FIT/One Wurzburg Baskets
Photo Credit: EuroleagueBasketball.net