Thompson Twins Make History With Top-Five NBA Draft Selections

The twins are in rarified air after their draft destinies were revealed.

All their lives, the Thompson twins—Amen and Ausar—have played basketball together. On Thursday night, the duo officially joined the NBA together—and made history in the process.

The Rockets chose Amen with the No. 4 pick of the NBA draft, followed by the Pistons taking Ausar at No. 5. That makes the Thompson twins the first pair of brothers to each be drafted in the top five in the same draft since the NBA/ABA merger in 1976, per ESPN Stats & Info.

The Thompsons bypassed playing in college to instead play in the Atlanta-based upstart Overtime Elite league, where they spent the past two years. They’re both lauded for their speed and athleticism, and will now be part of young teams in need of talent infusions.

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Before the draft began, the duo addressed how they will handle going off to different cities and no longer living together. In discussing how the twins have decided to divvy up some of their shared belongings, Amen lamented how he felt he was getting the wrong end of the deal.

“He got to keep the PS5, I’ve got to buy me one. That’s the main one so far,” Amen said. “We’ve been fighting over shoes too … I’m losing everything, it’s like a bad divorce.”

Now that the two are finally realizing their NBA dreams, hopefully Amen can recover from Ausar’s apparent advantage in the split-up.


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Nick Selbe
NICK SELBE

Nick Selbe is a programming editor at Sports Illustrated who frequently writes about baseball and college sports. Before joining SI in March 2020 as a breaking/trending news writer, he worked for MLB Advanced Media, Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report. Selbe received a bachelor's in communication from the University of Southern California.