LAS VEGAS — When NBA commissioner Adam Silver called Ebuka Okorie’s name at the 2026 NBA Draft, the former four-star prospect couldn’t hold his smile back for long. The Detroit Pistons traded their No. 21 pick and three second-round picks to the Oklahoma City Thunder to move up four spots to select him at No. 17.The Pistons knew what they were getting in Okorie. It wasn’t by accident that he ended up on president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon’s radar.Langdon’s son, Tayden, was a teammate of Okorie’s at Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., so there was a familiarity on both sides.“When I was going through the draft process, I realized how connected I was to Trajan even when I was back at Brewster,” Okorie told The Athletic while sitting on the bleachers of a sports complex roughly seven miles from the Las Vegas Strip. “So it does bring a lot more comfortability. I see Tayden, his son, all the time in the facility. It just shows the hospitality the Pistons have.”Okorie made his summer league debut, scoring 20 points in a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. The 19-year-old guard looked like a three-level scorer who initiated Detroit’s offense for the bulk of his 30 minutes.
16 PTS | 6-10 FG | 2-3 3PT and counting… https://t.co/xrMaD5rDEf pic.twitter.com/7p0cgGYOUk
