Kyle Filipowski’s fall to the second round of this year’s draft comes with a bit of a twist, as NBA teams have reportedly been hesitant due to some off-court concerns regarding the former Duke star.
These particular developments and allegations came to light on Thursday ahead of the second day of the draft after Filipowski was eliminated in the first round, confusing some pundits.
Filipowski was ultimately selected 32nd overall by the Jazz.
But ESPN’s Jonathan Givony reported both Podcast “The Lowe Post” and on “NBA Today” that teams had “talked” about the age gap between Filipowski and his girlfriend, Caitlin Hutchison, and why he was allegedly estranged from his family.
While Givony questioned why this would ultimately impact a team’s decision whether or not to select him – calling it “nonsense” during his appearance on the podcast – the ESPN draft reporter added to the recounts the discourse surrounding Filipowski.
“NBA teams are talking about the fact that they had question marks about the fact that his girlfriend was much older than him, why was he separated from his family because of this whole situation,” Givony said on “NBA Today.” “Apparently he doesn’t talk to his parents or his brother and it’s a very, very strange situation. Personally, I don’t understand why this would cause him to fall like this in the second round.
“There’s no question about his character, but NBA teams talk about his nerves and his workouts weren’t great. And when they asked him about the situation in interviews, the answers were that ‘they obtained were not satisfactory for them.’
But the story didn’t end there: a person claiming to be Filipowski’s brother and another X account claiming to be his mother He alleged the striker’s girlfriend “groomed” him and that Hutchison “forced” Filipowski to cut ties with his family two years ago.
Both accounts had claimed that this was a recurring problem and that the account pretending to be his brother Daniel wrote that the story had been “silenced for almost two years now”.
Attempts by The Post to reach the person claiming to be Filipowski’s brother were unsuccessful Thursday.
Hutchison would be 26 while Filipowski turns 21 later this year, and the first photo of the two together on Hutchison’s Instagram was from Filipowski’s prom in 2022.
Filipowski’s parents, David and Rebecca, both played college basketball, according to his biography on the Duke Basketball website, and he has three brothers, Daniel, Taylor and Matthew.
Additional reporting by Dylan Svoboda
News Source : nypost.com
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