Thirteen players have received invitations to attend the 2025 NBA draft in New York and sit in the green room, sources told ESPN, headlined by projected No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg of Duke.
Flagg, Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey, VJ Edgecombe, Tre Johnson, Khaman Maluach, Jeremiah Fears, Kon Knueppel, Kasparas Jakucionis, Egor Demin, Carter Bryant, Derik Queen and Asa Newell received the first batch of invites sent out Tuesday.
Another 11 invitations are expected to be sent out in waves, a source told ESPN.
The green room is a staging area in front of the NBA draft podium where players, their families and agents await commissioner Adam Silver's announcement of players' names upon selection.
Players are allowed to invite six people to sit at their tables.
The process of deciding whom to invite to the NBA draft involves communication with the presidents or general managers of teams that pick throughout the first round. Teams are asked to vote on the top 25 players whose names they expect to hear called first. This is to try to ensure that players aren't sitting for very long in front of a national television audience.
Receiving an invitation is considered a positive sign for a player's draft stock. However, there have been instances in the past of prospects falling to the second round while sitting in the green room, including Bol Bol, Deyonta Davis, Nic Claxton, Maciej Lampe and Rashard Lewis.
Last year, two players -- Johnny Furphy and Kyle Filipowski -- were among the first 20 players invited but ended up slipping to the second round.
Starting last year, the NBA draft moved to being conducted over two days. The first round this year will be held June 25, with both rounds at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Additional scrutiny will likely be placed on the final green room invitations to avoid a scenario where invited players and their families need to wait a full extra day to hear the player's name called.
In ESPN's latest mock draft, all 13 of the initial batch of invited players are projected to be lottery picks except Georgia's Newell.
Noa Essengue, a projected top-10 pick, is currently competing in the playoffs with Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany, which might hinder his ability to attend the draft. Game 5 of the German BBL finals isn't scheduled until June 26, the day after the first round of the draft.