Scott Van Pelt has had enough of the NBA Draft “hat situation.” And he’s not alone.
Every year, the NBA Draft features several players drafted by a team that they will not play for. But since the agreed-upon trades aren’t official until the new league season begins in July, the draftees take photos and do interviews in the hats of the team that selected them.
In a conversation with Jay Bilas following the first round of the NBA Draft on Wednesday, Van Pelt took a brief sidebar to rant about the NBA Draft’s omnipresent hat issue.
“I’m gonna scream about the hat situation,” Van Pelt said. “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
There’s strength in numbers in Van Pelt’s opinion. Throughout the first round, which saw several trades, a lot of NBA Draft viewers made similar observations.
If you know the pick is going to the Blazers, give him a Blazers hat instead of Grizzlies…
This is the biggest flaw in the NBA draft and needs to be changed. They can never enjoy their draft stage photos?#NBADraft
— Tana Hughes (@TanaHughes) June 26, 2025
I rarely tweet about the NBA, yes, but it’s absolutely idiotic that the league forces draft picks to wear the hat of a team everyone knows has already traded them elsewhere. This goes back to Magic and Chris Webber. Dumb.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) June 26, 2025
The NBA Draft charade of wearing the wrong hat continues because why would we want a kid to wear the hat of the team he’s actually going to play for on the biggest night of his life.
— Colby Daniels (@Colby_Daniels) June 26, 2025
The NBA needs to cut the shit and just let draft picks wear the hat of the team we all know they’re actually going to. Just use common sense.
— Unbiased Ev (@DoubleVodkaDon) June 26, 2025
It’s still ridiculous that the NBA makes a player wear the hat of the team that he is not going to be on in the draft pic.twitter.com/29U1nIlDbu
— Alex Micheletti (@AlexMicheletti) June 26, 2025
I hate that picks already traded before the NBA draft are still called as though they’re for the team that traded the pick away & the kids get the wrong hat on stage
Stupid
— Tab Bamford (@The1Tab) June 26, 2025
Is there anything more pointless than the #NBADraft not letting guys just wear the hat of the team that traded for them?
Never forget the Kobe era in Charlotte pic.twitter.com/oRVnsqSeKK
— Daren Stoltzfus WESH (@DarenStoltzfus) June 26, 2025
As opposed to the NFL Draft where trades are announced before teams make their selection, the NBA has a quirk where trades are only officially announced by commissioner Adam Silver after the picks have been made. This presents a very awkward scenario where we know that the player being selected won’t play for the team that drafts them, yet has to go through the pomp and circumstance of putting on that team’s hat anyways. It makes no sense, but it’s been this way in the NBA for years.
While Adam Silver listened to fans and the NBA was able to make changes during the broadcast of the NBA Finals like bringing back player introductions, this is the perfect opportunity for another common sense move.