Exec Believes Top Pick In 2026 NBA Draft Would Go For $100M In Open Auction
The value of a high NBA draft pick has always been immense for a number of factors including the quality of the player available to be selected along with the cost control of a rookie scale contract. The competition to secure one of the top picks in the 2026 NBA draft has been especially intense with Darryn Peterson, AJ Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer each considered future potential franchise players at the top of the draft.
"I was talking to a league executive today and he said to me, this is after Darryn Peterson had 23 points in 18 minutes and after we've seen some other top guys have big time games over the last four or five days," said ESPN's Brian Windhorst on The Hoop Collective Podcast.
"Darius Acuff with 49 last night," interjected Tim MacMahon.
"Is that what he had? He's what? He's projected top-5... he's not even top-3 right?"
"I've seen him like ninth," said MacMahon.
"I had an executive tell me that the No. 1 pick this year is worth $100 million," said Windhorst. "If you gave the opportunity to buy that pick, teams would pay $100 million for it. Keep that in mind when the Jazz were fined $500,000."
While the NBA teams don't have the opportunity to openly bid for draft picks or players, it is a major part of soccer. Fewer than two dozen players have ever been sold for more than $100 million and only two were at a price that exceeded that mark in 2025, but those were for well established stars. Kylian Mbappe, Joao Felix and Jude Bellingham are the only players to command a transfer fee over $100 million when they were still teenagers.
