Domantas Sabonis invited to attend NBA Draft

The NBA Draft is only days away, and with the arrival of the big event comes invitations for some of the top prospects. Domantas Sabonis, along with 13 other players, has been invited by the NBA to sit in the green room and wait for his name to be called on Thursday night as reported by Jonathan Givony of The Vertical.

There’s been a lot of speculation throughout the draft process that Sabonis could be taken in the lottery (Picks 1-14) portion of the draft after he was held out of all NBA Combine activities and only worked out for a small number of teams. Invitations to the draft are typically reserved for first-round picks, and the NBA usually tries to get as many projected lottery picks at the event as possible. Givony reported that the NBA issued fewer invites this year due to the uncertainty surrounding the draft, and particularly the latter half of the first round. Thus, the invitation for Sabonis bodes well for his draft prospects this week and indicates that we’ll be hearing his name called fairly early in the evening.

The full list of players invited to the Draft is as follows:

• Wade Baldwin IV (Guard, Vanderbilt)
• Jaylen Brown (Forward, Cal)
• Marquese Chriss (Forward, Washington)
• Deyonta Davis (Forward, Michigan State)
• Kris Dunn (Guard, Providence)
• Henry Ellenson (Forward, Marquette)
• Buddy Hield (Guard, Oklahoma)
• Brandon Ingram (Forward, Duke)
• Skal Labissiere (Forward/Center, Kentucky)
• Dejounte Murray (Guard, Washington)
• Jamal Murray (Guard, Kentucky)
• Jakob Poeltl (Center, Utah)
• Malachi Richardson (Guard, Syracuse)
• Domantas Sabonis (Forward/Center, Gonzaga)
• Ben Simmons (Forward, LSU)

The draft will air on ESPN this Thursday, June 23, 2016 at 8:00pm ET.