Draft Day Dilemma: Noa Essengue Prioritizes German Playoffs Over Green Room Invitation

A complex scenario has emerged for Noa Essengue and Ben Saraf, as the initial invitations for the green room associated with the 2025 NBA Draft, sponsored by State Farm, have been announced.

A total of thirteen players received invitations, including Lithuanian talent Kasparas Jakucionis and Russian Egor Demin, as reported by ESPN’s Jonathan Givony on Tuesday.

The list of invitees includes highly touted Cooper Flagg, who is favored to be the first overall pick by the Dallas Mavericks, as well as 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 issued in the coming days.

Typically, the green room highlights top lottery prospects or players anticipated to be selected later in the first round, indicating that Essengue and potentially Saraf could also be considered for inclusion. Nonetheless, both rising stars are currently concentrating on their team, ratiopharm Ulm, which is competing for the German League championship in the easyCredit BBL Playoffs 2025.

In the best-of-five Semifinals, Ulm is locked in a 2-2 tie with FIT/One Wurzburg Baskets and will face a crucial Game 5 at ratiopharm Arena on Thursday. The victors will move on to compete against top-seeded FC Bayern Munich in a best-of-five championship series starting Sunday. A potential Game 5 of that series would fall on June 26, coinciding with the second day of the NBA draft, likely resulting in the exclusion of the 18-year-old French forward and 19-year-old Israeli combo guard from the green room.

ALBA Berlin – Syntainics MBC 81-78
EWE Baskets Oldenburg – Rostock Seawolves 95-83
Syntainics MBC – EWE Baskets Oldenburg 110-95

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 Löwen Braunschweig – FIT/One Wurzburg Baskets 2-3 (92-79, 90-94, 80-75, 72-79, 88-97)

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)

FC Bayern Munich – ratiopharm Ulm / FIT/One Wurzburg Baskets

Photo Credit: EuroleagueBasketball.net

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