Illinois Guard Kasparas Jakucionis Earns Green Room Invite to NBA Draft

The green room is the central holding area for the players whom league officials expect to be drafted early – among the top 10 or so – or who excelled above and beyond the previous college season. The idea: Introduce the league's future stars on a big stage and celebrate their individual moments with a podium visit, a handshake from league commissioner Adam Silver and a quick softball interview. Photo ops and fun abound.

There is a potential downside, however. if a player gets a green room invite and doesn't hear his name called for a while, he's stuck – and the camera can start to feel like a heat lamp. Rashard Lewis sweated out a painful wait through the entire first round back in 1998. (In the NFL, quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Brady Quinn went through somewhat similar experiences.)

Staying in the NFL for a moment, one player who seemed to make the right choice by not attending the green room was Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders. Projected to be the No. 1 overall pick before last year's college football season, Sanders didn't hear his name called until the fifth round of last month's NFL Draft. The media firestorm that followed would have only burned hotter had Sanders subjected himself to what would have been a mini reality show of a green room wait.

Thirteen players have received invitations to the NBA Draft green room thus far, and even though Jakucionis is on the list, there has been no word yet whether he'll accept. To be honest, he may want to pass. Jakucionis figures to go in the first round, but it wouldn't be a shocker if he failed to go in the top 10 after his stock fell off a bit these past few months. Maybe it's no sweat off Jakucionis' brow, but we're much more in favor of a player hosting friends and family at home and hanging out on their own terms.

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