The 2026 NBA Draft is officially in the books, and for the North Carolina Tar Heels, they saw two players hear their names called. Caleb Wilson went No. 4 overall to the Chicago Bulls , being the highest-ranked Tar Heel to be drafted since 2005.
But his teammate, Henri Veesaar , had to wait a while to be drafted.
Going into the draft, Veesaar had a first-round grade on him with most experts predicting he would land in the back end of the first round. That didn't happen. Instead, Veesaar fell to No. 52 overall where the Los Angeles Clippers selected him and immediately traded him to Atlanta .
For Veesaar, he admitted it was disappointing to fall that far in the draft.
"I mean, yeah, I was surprised about not being in the first round and sliding, but honestly, I'm so happy about being a Hawk. They're one of the teams that we wanted to come to," Veesaar said . "Not hearing my name the first day, obviously, it didn't feel great. I was a little bit surprised."
Veesaar and his camp thought they would be a first-round pick. May connected him to the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks and the idea of not playing on a two-way contract was in the thought process as well.
While Veesaar reportedly could have made up to $5M in NIL money at UNC , he's now in the NBA to pursue his dream. And we hope he can achieve all of his goals and make UNC fans proud.
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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: Henri Veesaar was surprised he fell in 2026 NBA Draft
