Most recently, Kansas basketball guard Darrin Peterson raised eyebrows by ruling himself out of the team's road win over Oklahoma State on Wednesday evening. The move comes just days after Peterson was removed from the second game during warmups due to illness, raising big questions about what his availability might look like at the NBA level.
Peterson is widely considered one of the most talented players in the upcoming 2026 NBA Draft class, but recently, sports media personality Stephen A. Smith took to the ESPN airwaves to share why he wouldn't draft Peterson if he had the number one overall pick.
"There's no team that can take Darrin Peterson No. 1. You can't do that. The number one ability is availability...and these games he's missing, cramps? Flu...I can't trust him. You can't be trusted," Smith said on X, formerly of First Take on Twitter, per Awful Announcing.
In fact, availability concerns are starting to become a bigger concern for Peterson, who is widely viewed as the best point guard prospect in the upcoming draft. There's no denying Peterson's ability to produce when he's on the floor, as the Kansas guard boasts an elite combination of outside shooting, explosive athleticism and defensive instincts that make him an ideal floor general for the modern NBA.
However, he has plenty of competition for the number one spot in the upcoming draft, primarily in the form of Duke forward Cameron Boozer, the son of former NBA player Carlos Boozer, as well as BYU wing AJ DiBuntsa.
In a league where load management is increasingly becoming an issue, it's certainly possible that any team that would have selected Peterson at No. 1 overall might view his availability issues as too big a problem to ignore.
In any case, the NBA Draft is scheduled for the end of June.
