Aday Mara barely talked to OKC in predraft process: 'Little surprising'

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On the outside looking in, the NBA predraft process seems pretty chaotic. Prospects meet with teams, get asked out-of-pocket questions and travel all over the continent. Your head is on a swivel for weeks as you accomplish your biggest life goal of making the pros.

And from what Aday Mara recounted, he seems to confirm the hunches everybody has about the predraft process.

Transferring to Michigan, Mara bounced back after two so-so years at UCLA. He helped the Wolverines bring home a national championship this past season. Alongside Morez Johnson Jr. and Yaxel Lendeborg, the frontcourt trio dominated the college world with an impressive 37-3 record.

By the end of March Madness, Mara was a household name. The 7-foot-3 center anchored Michigan's defense. His sheer size had opposing scorers second-guessing drives to the rim. On offense, he made second-chance points look as easy as tying your shoes. The gigantic center made the college hoops look like Little Tikes ones that infants play with.

Throughout the predraft process, Mara was consistently mocked in the lottery range. After the Oklahoma City Thunder introduced him to the local media, the 21-year-old went into detail about the adventure that led to him being selected with the No. 12 pick of the 2026 NBA draft.

And surprisingly enough, it involved very little of the team that eventually added him.

"Not really. I didn’t have a lot of contact with them. It was more of an agent thing," Mara said. "I guess it was a little surprising. But I’m happy to be in this program.”

Just goes to show how volatile the NBA predraft process is. Even when you feel like you have a decent idea of the group of teams that could add you, you're completely in the dark about what actually happens. Mara was blindsided that the Thunder took him with the No. 12 pick — even though he was commonly mocked to go there.

"I didn’t do anything with OKC. I just did the interview at the combine. I think it went really, really good," Mara said. "That's why it was surprising to me."

Now, Mara gets ready for his new lifestyle. He'll spend around nine months out of the year at OKC. The Thunder hope he can help extend their championship window. Feels like he's going to eventually be the long-term replacement of Isaiah Hartenstein and pair up with Chet Holmgren to form the double-big combo in the latter part of this decade.

The Thunder have lived in the best of both worlds this decade — contending for Larry O'Brien trophies and studying up for lottery picks. Thanks to Sam Presti's savvy negotiation process at the start of their rebuild, he put OKC in a pretty unprecedented situation of being given lottery picks from other NBA franchises. Now, it's about actually hitting on those picks to turn into solid high-end players.

Mara is the latest addition to their stacked roster. And with the complimentary pieces about to go through changes this summer, they'll need him and others to restock the end of the bench for the foreseeable future. The Thunder are stoked to see how his novel playstyle fits in with their group as a curveball to throw.

"Being here really fits who I am. Last year, I was fishing with a couple of teammates for example. I know they have a couple of lakes here. So hopefully I can do the same here," Mara said. "I like to play golf. Hopefully, they have courses. I like outside activities."

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Aday Mara barely talked to OKC in predraft process: 'Little surprising'

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