Why was Bucks pick Nate Ament given the wrong cap on draft night?

· Yahoo Sports

It's a recurring theme at the NBA Draft – players get to the stage, are given the cap of the team that drafted them and just about everybody in the room, including the player. knows it's the wrong cap.

It happened again multiple times in the first round of the 2026 draft June 23 – and it included Milwaukee Bucks pick Nate Ament, who donned a Miami Heat cap after he was taken No. 13 overall.

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Everyone understood the pick, part of the massive deal between the Heat and Bucks for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis Jr., was actually Milwaukee's. The Bucks were the team on the phone when Ament was selected – something he acknowledged on air when he was interviewed right after the selection – and yet photos of the night document Ament wearing a Heat logo.

So what gives? The strange charade has to do with the NBA calendar.

The league won't officially process draft-night (or near-draft-night) trades until the fresh league calendar begins in July, so technically the hats weren't wrong. The Miami Heat did make the No. 13 pick, but they did so at the direction of the Bucks, who chose Ament.

This practice dates back decades. Kobe Bryant famously wore a Charlotte Hornets hat when he arrived on stage, Penny Hardaway was a Golden State Warrior, Kawhi Leonard looked like an Indiana Pacer, Luka Dončić repped the Atlanta Hawks and Ray Allen was a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves, until he wasn't.

The Allen change was good news for the Bucks, whose cap was worn by Stephon Marbury on draft night before the Marbury-for-Allen trade became official in 1996.

But most Milwaukee fans wallow in the disappointment of drafting and trading Dirk Nowitzki, a Hall of Famer who was really selected at the behest of the Dallas Mavericks before an official trade was processed in 1998.

It's a silly bit of theater and seemingly unnecessary. The Bucks were even allowed to acknowledge that they had obtained Ament's "draft rights" later in the night with the message, "We have agreed in principle to acquire the draft rights to Nate Ament, the 13th overall pick in tonight’s draft, from the Miami Heat as part of a deal to be finalized later."

That allowed Ament to take some photos with the right headgear.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Why are NBA draft picks like Nate Ament given the wrong cap on stage?

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