Jeremiah Fears will be front and center for this year's NBA Draft.
The former Oklahoma point guard, a projected lottery pick in the upcoming draft, is reportedly among the 13 prospects to receive a green room invite to this year's NBA Draft in Brooklyn, New York. The green room for the NBA Draft is a staging area in front of the event's podium, where players and their families and agents are seated as they wait to hear their names called by NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
According to ESPN, 13 prospects received the initial invites for the green room, including Fears, the one-and-done Oklahoma point guard who helped lead the program back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021. The other dozen players, according to the report, are Duke's Cooper Flagg (the expected No. 1 overall pick), Rutgers stars Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, Baylor's VJ Edgecombe, Texas' Tre Johnson, Duke's Khaman Maluach and Kon Knueppel, Illinois' Kasparas Jakucionis, BYU's Egor Demin, Arizona's Carter Bryant, Maryland's Derik Queen and Georgia's Asa Newell.
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Eleven additional players are expected to receive invites ahead of the draft, which is set for June 25-26 at Barclays Center. The first round will be held that Wednesday and air on ABC and ESPN, with the second round held Thursday night and broadcast on ESPN.
To decide which prospects receive green room invitations, the NBA polls teams with first-round picks and ask them to vote on their top-25 players in the draft. Players who receive invitations are generally expected to be selected in the first round, though that's not always a guarantee, as players can slide in the draft.
Players who receive green room invitations are permitted to bring six people to sit at their table.
(Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images, Getty)
Fears is widely projected as a lottery pick after spending just one season at Oklahoma. The 6-foot-3 guard, who reclassified from the 2025 class to enroll a year early with the Sooners, led OU in scoring and assists last season while averaging 17.1 points and 4.1 assists per game. He was also the team's third-leading rebounder (4.1 per game) and paced the team with 1.6 steals per night while touting a 31.5% usage rate that was among the highest in the nation.
"He's ready just because of his journey," Oklahoma coach Porter Moser said this week during an appearance on The Sideline podcast with NCAA.com's Andy Katz. "He absolutely loves the game. His work ethic is impeccable; first one in, last one to leave. He's durable; never missed a practice, never missed a game. And his growth in the No. 1 league in the history of college basketball in the SEC this year, just watching his growth from the start of the year to the end, he just grew, learned, got better, got stronger, evolved and did it against the best league underneath the NBA. He's ready because of that work ethic and that drive, and he did it on that stage."
Fears declared for the NBA Draft not long after Oklahoma's season ended in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. He's the program's first one-and-one prospect since Trae Young — now the Sooners' assistant general manager — in 2018. He's also set to be the program's first first-round pick since Young and the 12th first-rounder in program history.
Here's an updated look at where Fears is projected to be selected, with about two weeks before the NBA Draft:
-- First round, seventh overall by the New Orleans Pelicans (ESPN)
-- First round, eighth overall by the Brooklyn Nets (ESPN)
-- First round, eighth overall by the Brooklyn Nets (The Ringer)
-- First round, sixth overall by the Washington Wizards (CBS Sports)
-- First round, sixth overall by the Washington Wizards (Bleacher Report)
-- First round, seventh overall by the New Orleans Pelicans (Tankathon)
-- First round, sixth overall by the Washington Wizards (Yahoo Sports)
-- First round, sixth overall by the Washington Wizards (Sports Illustrated)
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