Kyle Filipowski’s Girlfriend Allegedly Grooming Him Caused Draft Slide

Kyle Filipowski came into the 2024 NBA Draft widely regarded as one of the best talents available.

Between his collegiate success and pro-ready physical attributes, he should have been a no-brainer first-round pick.

Unfortunately, the first round came and went with Filipowski’s name not being called. Aside from Reed Sheppard’s girlfriend’s private photos leaking out, it was probably the biggest story of Night 1 of the 2024 NBA Draft.

Recently Jonathan Givony appeared on Zach Lowe’s podcast and elaborated on why some NBA teams were iffy on Filipowski.

“The workouts weren’t great people tell me there were question marks about the interviews,” Givony said.

“They said he was nervous. He didn’t make shots at the pro day. What’s going on with his girlfriend? This is all nonsense. It’s hard to find a seven-footer like Kyle Filipowski who is this skilled. Somebody needs to draft him very early in the second round.”

Understandably, Givony was asked to elaborate on what precisely Filipowski’s girlfriend could have done to cause him to slide down in the draft.

“He has an older girlfriend, she’s like 25 or 26 and people are like ‘Ah, this is weird’ and it’s like give me a freaking break guys,” Givony continued. “He doesn’t talk to his parents…”

On Thursday, more clarity emerged in the form of social media posts from members of Filipowski’s family:

Filipowski is obviously a deeply talented hoopster and will almost certainly have a lot of success at the next level.

But it is also understandable why some teams wouldn’t want to deal with this headache.

Will Filipowski and his girlfriend bother addressing this situation in any capacity over the next few weeks? Time will tell.

Carlos Garcia

A longtime Sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB Games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.