A Grooming Controversy Took Over the 2024 NBA Draft

The recently completed NBA Draft was filled with some major subplots, with now Utah Jazz player Kyle Filipowski being the center of one of the most fascinating ones.

A near-seven-footer from Duke, Filipowski was touted to at least be picked in the top 20 of the draft in most of the credible pre-draft analyses. He was a consensus five-star recruit and was one of the top players from the 2022 class, but shockingly, there were no takers on 2024 NBA draft day 1. The news sent tremors across NBA Twitter, as fans of both the league and college basketball were left stunned.

Filipowski not being picked on the first day gave birth to a conspiracy theory, which was first stirred by NBA Draft expert Jonathon Givony’s comments on Zach Lowe’s podcast, The Lowe Post:

“NBA teams are talking about the fact that they had questions about his girlfriend being so much older than him, why was he estranged from his family because of this whole situation. It’s a very, very odd situation. I personally don’t understand why it would cause him to drop like this into the second round.”

Jonathan Givony/The Lowe Post

The “girlfriend” in question here is Caitlin Hutchinson, Filipowski’s fianceé (as per an April 18 Instagram post by Hutchinson, which can’t be shared here because her profile is private). Filipowski is currently 20 years old, and while Hutchinson’s exact age isn’t verified, she has been estimated to be in the 25–28-year age bracket, which doesn’t come across as a major concern at first glance.

However, things begin to look fishy when you take a closer look at Filipowski’s Instagram posts, especially the one dated May 21, 2022. At the time this post was made, the former Duke forward was 17 years old, (Filipowski was born in November 2003), while Hutchinson was at least 25 years old. Hutchinson had commented on the post “one year with my favorite person,” which suggests that the two started dating when Filipowski was as young as 16. The comment is now deleted.

The debacle has received considerable attention from the media and fans lately, and two accounts claiming to be Filipowski’s brother and mother have come forward, alleging that Kyle was groomed by Hutchinson as a part of Mormon culture. It is important to note that Givony’s aforementioned comments include a bit about Filipowski being estranged from his family because of his girlfriend. Simultaneously, it is difficult to verify if the account “Becky Filipowski” indeed belongs to the NBA player’s mother, and Hutchinson hasn’t come out and laid out her side of the story yet.

Filipowski is now a part of the Utah Jazz, the NBA team that picked him 32nd overall. While the player would like to leave this debacle behind and focus on his career, it doesn’t appear that the speculation is going to end anytime soon.