The NBA Draft holds so many stories for those who realize their dream of making it to the best professional basketball league in the world. Some of those stories have their own unexpected twists, and former NBA All-Star Jeff Teague can certainly agree that’s true based on his own draft night story in 2009.
Teague reminisced about the night he was first drafted and shared an absolutely wild story about how one NBA franchise pulled a fast one on him by claiming they’d select him but didn’t.
Jeff Teague Details How He Felt Seeing the Sixers Pick Someone Else on Draft Night
The current head coach of Pike High School men’s basketball team in his home town of Indianapolis shared his experience while appearing as a guest on The Rich Eisen Show on Thursday (June 26), detailing how the night already got more emotional due to it being the same day that the legendary singer Michael Jackson died.
“So who called you finally,” Eisen asked Teague, “Did someone call you or were you watching on TV and you heard your name called?” Teague replied, “Actually, I got tricked.
Someone called me at pick 13, it was Philadelphia. They had pick 17. They were like, ‘Man, welcome to the family,’ they did all that stuff. They were like, “If you’re there at 17, we’re gonna grab you. And then they said, ‘Jrue Holiday’, and I was like, ‘What?!’”
💻 Jeff Teague
The Club 520 Podcast host recalled his draft night in 2009 that just happened to go down on the same night we lost Michael Jackson:#NBADraft pic.twitter.com/BzNWeWMkvT
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) June 26, 2025
Teague continued, “I didn’t work out for many teams, I didn’t work out for Atlanta, so I didn’t know where I was going. But I think I had a guarantee at 21 with New Orleans, and Atlanta picked me at 19.” Teague would go on to play seven seasons for the Hawks, becoming an integral part of a squad that consistently made the playoffs after his rookie season and becoming an All-Star in 2015.
Eisen took the opportunity to ask Teague about NBA guarantees and what they consist of, referencing Utah Jazz rookie Ace Bailey. “They basically told me that if I was there at 21, I wouldn’t get past them”, Teague said, referring to the Pelicans’ conversations with his agent.
“They didn’t expect me to be there at 21. They just said ‘Hey, if he gets to 21, we’re going to take him. We need a point guard, we’re going to take him. So I wasn’t really nervous about getting picked, and it didn’t happen. I’m glad I went to Atlanta.”
“What is a guarantee, a verbal guarantee worth anyway?” Eisen asked, to which Teague swiftly answered, “Nothing. I thought I was going to Philly too.”
Teague would play for twelve seasons in the NBA before retiring in 2021 after winning a championship as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks team under his former coach with Atlanta, Mike Budenholzer. Ironically, he played all six games of those NBA Finals as backup to a familiar figure…Jrue Holiday.
