{"id":2011746,"date":"2026-06-26T00:14:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T21:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2011746"},"modified":"2026-06-26T00:14:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T21:14:02","slug":"narcisse-ngoy-goes-to-la-clippers-on-draft-night-but-will-play-for-auburn-next-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2011746","title":{"rendered":"Narcisse Ngoy goes to LA Clippers on draft night, but will play for Auburn next season"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s the dream of every young basketball player to be selected in the NBA Draft. And it came true on Thursday night for French big man Narcisse Ngoy.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s only one problem: Ngoy wasn\u2019t expecting to be drafted and he plans to spend next season playing for Auburn.<\/p>\n

Ngoy, a 22-year-old center, was taken by the Atlanta Hawks with the 57th pick and quickly dealt to the Los Angeles Clippers along with cash considerations for the draft rights to Henri Veesaar, the 52nd pick. Almost immediately, Ngoy said thanks but no thanks to the Clippers, at least for now.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am thankful for the LA Clippers\u2019 confidence in me,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cI fully intend to honor my commitment to Auburn University, and I am looking forward to wearing the Auburn Tigers jersey for the 2026\u201327 season.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Clippers draft pick Narcisse Ngoy thanks Clippers \u2014 and says he plans to play for Auburn Tigers next season pic.twitter.com\/5InJuBAQaP<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Law Murray \ud83d\udc8a (@LawMurrayTheNU) June 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Herman Manakyan of Fusion Sports, who represents Ngoy, said in a statement to The Athletic<\/em> that the selection came as a surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing drafted by the Clippers was unanticipated,\u201d Manakyan said. \u201cHe is still committed to go to Auburn. It\u2019s an unprecedented and fluid situation. We are working through the implications at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ngoy was the Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year in France\u2019s Elite 2 League for Poitiers Basket 86. In March, Ngoy committed to play next season for coach Steven Pearl and Auburn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to welcome Narcisse Ngoy to our program,\u201d Pearl said<\/a><\/span> of Ngoy at the time. \u201cHe\u2019s a high-upside young man who brings toughness, physicality, and a team-first mindset to everything he does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though he was automatically eligible to be drafted because of his age, Ngoy did not declare for the draft or sign a contract. Therefore, he\u2019s allowed to return to the Tigers, who went 22-16 last season, a year after making the Final Four.<\/p>\n

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The Clippers have opted to stash Ngoy\u2019s rights, which they hold indefinitely until he does join the NBA, making him the rare case of a domestic draft-and-stash player. One notable example was Larry Bird, who the Boston Celtics selected in 1978. He then returned for his final season at Indiana State, where he led the Sycamores to the 1979 NCAA championship game, before joining the Celtics the next season for the start of a Hall of Fame NBA career.<\/p>\n

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Though there was no communication between the Clippers and Ngoy\u2019s reps before the draft, the two sides are allowed to be in touch and have communicated since he was drafted, according to people briefed on the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conservations.<\/p>\n

Analysis<\/h2>\n

Ever since James Nnaji returned to college basketball<\/a> in December, a situation like Ngoy\u2019s has been a possibility.<\/p>\n

Even if, mechanically speaking, it was a relative improbability.<\/p>\n

Nnaji, for context, was a second-round pick in 2023, but he never signed an NBA contract \u2014 including a two-way or Exhibit 10 deal \u2014 nor did he ever appear in an NBA game. That delineation, coupled with the fact that Nnaji had never played college basketball prior to being drafted, was ultimately why the NCAA deemed him eligible for Baylor in December. And while Nnaji made a minimal impact for the Bears over the final 18 games he participated in, averaging just 1.4 points in 8.2 minutes, his true legacy became upending the convention behind which players are and aren\u2019t eligible to play collegiately.<\/p>\n

People around basketball began discussing the idea of potential \u201cdraft-and-stash\u201d players in college shortly after Nnaji was deemed eligible. The thought was simple: What NBA team wouldn\u2019t want its developmental second-rounder cutting his teeth against future lottery picks in the SEC, rather than less-talented players in international leagues?<\/p>\n

There was enough smoke around the subject that the NCAA attempted to close the loophole. With speculation that highly-touted international players like Jack Kayil \u2014 a former Gonzaga commit who was selected 39th in this week\u2019s NBA Draft \u2014 might be potential domestic \u201cdraft-and-stash\u201d possibilities, the governing body passed new rules in April aimed at preventing that outcome. As of April, international players had to \u201cwithdraw\u201d from future professional drafts \u2014 the same way American college players do \u2014 in order to be eligible to play collegiately. That meant someone like Kayil had to formally opt to stay in the draft, rather than attend Gonzaga.<\/p>\n

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But Ngoy\u2019s case is different because of his age. All international prospects are automatically eligible to be drafted once they turn 22, which Ngoy is; that\u2019s different from a 20-year-old like Kayil who, as of April, had to declare whether he\u2019d stay in \u2014 knowing he\u2019d lose his eligibility, like American prospects, if he remained in the draft pool.<\/p>\n

Instead, Ngoy is the rare instance of someone who didn\u2019t have to make that declaration. If he was eligible for college basketball before, nothing about his second-round draft status changes that fact \u2014 so long as he doesn\u2019t sign a contract.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
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<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

As for the Clippers, they retain Ngoy\u2019s draft rights indefinitely, same as the New York Knicks still hold Nnaji\u2019s (after he was traded there as part of the Karl-Anthony Towns deal).<\/p>\n

Still, questions abound about how this will work. Can the Clippers call Pearl at Auburn and check in on Ngoy\u2019s development? Can Auburn send the Clippers medical information if Ngoy gets injured? Can they mutually decide whether Ngoy \u2014 whose class designation has yet to be released by Auburn \u2014 should go pro next spring, or stay at Auburn for another year? There\u2019s no rulebook for how any of this will or should be handled.<\/p>\n

Similarly, both the NBA and NCAA will be careful to avoid copycats in the future. To steal a phrase from our John Hollinger: What if a player\u2019s agent and an NBA team have a wink-wink agreement, and he commits to college before the draft while knowing he\u2019s likely to be selected? Policing that would be difficult, and even more difficult to prove, but it would be shocking if teams don\u2019t at least try to imitate this situation in the future.<\/p>\n

That said, it\u2019s worth reiterating that situations like Ngoy\u2019s are already incredibly unlikely, and should be even more so in the future given the NCAA\u2019s recently adopted age-based eligibility rules<\/a>. \u2014 Brendan Marks<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the dream of every young basketball player to be selected in the NBA Draft. And it came true on Thursday night for French big man Narcisse Ngoy. There\u2019s only one problem: Ngoy wasn\u2019t expecting to be drafted and he plans to spend next season playing for Auburn. Ngoy, a 22-year-old center, was taken by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-2011746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2011746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2011746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2011746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2011746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}