Twin brothers Amen and Ausar Thompson made history Thursday night when they were chosen back-to-back in the 2023 NBA Draft at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Amen was selected with the No. 4 pick by the Houston Rockets while Ausar was taken with the No. 5 pick by the Detroit Pistons.
Amen and Ausar, who are both 20-year-old guards from Overtime Elite, became the first set of brothers to be drafted within the top 10 in the same draft. “Me and Ausar, we were going to be happy whoever went first,” Amen Thompson told reporters. “But it means a lot to my family seeing all the hard work pay off. Us going back to back, being the first twins in the same draft to go Top 5, it means a lot.”
The Thompson brothers are however not the first brothers to be picked back-to-back as twins Markieff and Marcus Morris were drafted 13th and 14th, respectively, in 2011. This means that this is the second time in 12 years that a pair of twins has gone back to back in the NBA Draft.
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The Thompson twins, who are San Leandro, California, natives, attended high school at Pine Crest in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The 6-foot-7 identical twins opted not to attend a Power Five basketball program and rather played together in Overtime Elite, a professional basketball league for teenagers in Atlanta. The brothers were part of Overtime Elite’s first two seasons and they are the first two Overtime Elite players to get drafted.
