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KU Insider Shreyas Laddha checks in to talk Darryn Peterson being chosen 2nd in the 2026 NBA Draft.
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00:00page and now digging deeper with the teams you follow it's another sports daily insider interview
00:12on kfh and welcome back everybody glad to have you with us glad to have shrey slata with us
00:20one day after the nba draft darren peterson the number two overall pick treas now he gets to
00:28plant a chip on his shoulder you can find treas a lot of supporting all over the kc star um
00:34he's our
00:35ku insider this has been a story you've been following for a long time pay heed kcsn podcast
00:41it's in the books it's done no more will he won't be the first overall pick he won't be he's
00:47the
00:47number two pick you good with it did uh did did washington make a mistake here i mean i i
00:53get why
00:54washington didn't want to take a chance after everything that happened this year right you go
01:00with a little more of a self-assuredness but candidly i think if darren's healthy he's gonna be the best
01:05player in the draft and the one that i saw yesterday the version of darren peterson that i saw yesterday
01:10i didn't get to see a lot of at kansas uh he was confident he was filled with swagger he
01:18was in
01:18complete control in every press setting um he was smiling ear to ear and he would make it known to
01:25anybody whether it was me or uh when he talked to the you know the local media utah or just
01:31the media
01:31the draft he's coming for everybody in that draft he's coming for aj and he's coming for every single
01:37other player in that draft and um i think that instinct that feel around darren we didn't get to see
01:44at kansas a ton of this past year so from the things he said last night what stuck out the
01:52most
01:52i think the one that's getting the most run is him saying that he wants to play all 82 games
01:56uh just
01:58you know talk about that well i mean i think that was an interesting one because it's clear he said
02:03it
02:03himself he wanted to play more games in kansas didn't get the opportunity um he admitted that he
02:08never really felt like fully himself at kansas which i've reported you know i've had people in his camp
02:12tell me he was never 100 which makes sense if you watch the games he never looked 100 um he
02:18was
02:18pretty effusive of praise towards kansas fans you know like i asked him to deliver a message and he
02:23had a nice message about i would never be here without them and and all that um and the really
02:29interesting part was uh i felt like i saw him embrace ku and lawrence in a way that i think
02:41maybe we
02:42hadn't seen up to this point you know like it felt like i'm he said yeah i'm going to utah
02:48but i still
02:49went here and what the great quote he gave was he was like if i could do it again i'd
02:53do it all
02:54thousands more times yeah a million times or something like that you know and to me that was
02:59crazy because you know the year was insane for him up and down but he called it a great year
03:04and uh
03:05you know i think ku fans i know have mixed feelings about him but i think last night probably should
03:12have helped win a lot of at least some of that over i i think ku fans if he comes
03:18out and he's
03:18awesome ku fans are gonna forget about it and be like oh man maybe he was hurt right like because
03:23why else would any of that mattered i it's he's he's such an interesting player i agree with you i
03:29i i don't know what it is but it does seem like whatever that it is he has a little
03:37bit more of
03:38it than aj debonsa or cameron boozer i think it's just athleticism maybe a little bit like he can do
03:46things athletically that that not many people can i think his what his feel of the game is just so
03:53good
03:53like yeah he's got a great touch on him too he probably is better than darren does candidly did
03:58you ever when you started to watch him however long ago that's been now did you ever think of him
04:05with a as a chip chip on the shoulder guy like as a as a wired like kobe is the
04:12guy every time i
04:13watched aaron peterson and now especially now that he gets to put this chip on his shoulder i all i
04:19think
04:19about is kobe he's always reminded me of kobe just in it just kind of stylistically and like you can't
04:25really define what it is that makes him great but you can just kind of see it now if you
04:28put a chip
04:29on his shoulder then it's got a chance to be even more like kobe right like did you ever think
04:34of him
04:35as getting that piece of his personality unlocked when you first started to cover him candidly no i
04:42he's always been a quieter guy i think it was always this quiet innate confidence to him
04:46like i wrote about it today on twitter it's like i don't think anyone's covered or written more
04:51about darren peterson than i have he knows who i am his camp news who i am they dap me
04:56up you know
04:56like i'm sure he was like man this guy again but it was so interesting to me on tuesday night
05:04because
05:04he definitely took it personal that aj was number one and i think there was some level of like i
05:10wrote
05:10about it this level of like toe the line between self-assuredness and confidence and swagger and
05:17and maybe a little bit of arrogance right like we haven't seen a ton of arrogance from darren
05:21peterson this year like that's the trademark of so many great athletes is some level of arrogance
05:25i feel like uh and i feel like darren showed a little bit of that on on tuesday night and
05:31to me
05:32the kobe thing is so funny because he actually got kobe tattooed on his right shoulder he said recently
05:38um and he said if he can't wear number 22 he's gonna wear number eight which i think uh another
05:45utah player wears that's gonna happen but look i guys i don't know if he's kobe and i candidly i
05:52don't think anyone is kobe i think it's just too ridiculous to expect that and i think he is a
05:57little better like sense of work-life balance than kobe bryan ever did i mean like he talks about
06:03playing with his puppy and movies this and that um i think you know how it his nba career plays
06:10out
06:10is 100 going to be relying on a few things one of them is health but also too is just
06:15like you know
06:16the skills that made everyone say he's kobe or shea or devin booker whoever do they translate over
06:24to the league and you know does it happen right away or does it take time uh so sure it's
06:30one thing
06:31that i said about darren peterson is whenever people that don't follow ku basketball or you
06:36know whenever they're on nationally and things like that whenever people talked about darren peterson
06:40it was well look at the way this guy is just like walking around look at the way this guy
06:44talks like
06:44you can just like he just doesn't care he just doesn't want to be there and you and i think
06:49that
06:49there was a little bit even that from me back in you know november and stuff is like and he's
06:54not
06:54getting excited about anything like i don't know what his deal is and then as you learn more is
06:58all right he just doesn't get excited about much at all he just kind of doesn't smile very much he's
07:03just shy and doesn't talk i said that utah might be the perfect fit for darren peterson because of
07:08it's not new york and it's not los angeles or even washington dc i think that utah is a place
07:15where he
07:15can go just play basketball and i think that might be out despite the you know the camp and the
07:22things
07:22that are said around darren peterson that seem like they're coming from darren peterson i think that
07:26darren peterson himself probably loves the fact that he can just go play basketball i i completely
07:32agree and i think it is the perfect basketball fit in a lot of ways he can slot right in
07:37into that
07:38two guard spot for them or one guy kind of depending on what happens but i mean like they with
07:44darren if
07:44he is as advertised they can make the playoffs next year and candidly the utah media market is not new
07:50york or philadelphia or dc or boston or any of these big east coast cities that would have turned
07:56every single darren peterson thing he'd done a lot and it's something that i've talked about we you
08:01know i cover kansas we cover kansas kansas state missouri whatever right candidly i've always felt the
08:08midwest media market for the most part is a little softer outside of chicago than the east coast and we
08:15saw it firsthand with uh i think lance leipold i think we sat a little bit with darren outside of
08:20when i got the chance to talk to him um and we got the chance to talk to him at
08:24big 12 but like
08:26the reality of this is i think you're right this is the perfect market for him not just as basketball
08:31fit but because all he has to do is hoop in utah if he does and play good basketball nobody
08:37cares if
08:38he's a quieter kid or if he's not as confident but what i saw on tuesday was two different like
08:44versions of darren peterson that i haven't seen like he was just a completely different guy
08:48and he was filled with swagger he was smiling ear to ear he was excited i think that was the
08:53happiest
08:54i've ever seen him uh and maybe that's because there wasn't a lot of things that made him happy
08:58at kansas with everything going on with the injuries i'm going to give you darren peterson and aj
09:04debonsa or the field for rookie of the year next year who are you taking i'm taking darren peterson
09:11agent abonsa okay yeah uh who who is the next bet like who's the guy in that class you think
09:19because
09:19those two have been headlining for a long time but who could be the real surprise out of that group
09:26and it you know i don't know the year or just like well just like to be a like star
09:31star nba player
09:33i mean uh a guy like darius acuff i mean in sacramento is going to get a lot of you
09:38know
09:38minutes and opportunities to shine i think he's doing really good offensively um another guy i like
09:45uh lebaron filon i love lebaron like he's probably my sleeper in the draft i really wish he had ended
09:50up at kansas he would have been a lot of fun uh to be there i i talked to him
09:54about that actually uh
09:55you know having to come back and stuff like that um i think those two guys i like i mean
10:00darius
10:00doesn't play great defense so but how much that matters it just i don't know like you can still
10:06be an ultra talented guard without playing great defense um mikhail brown another guy uh a wing
10:13type could be pretty good i like boozer but i think he's gonna be like a solid fundamental also like
10:18a guy who's gonna roll out of bed and give you like 18 and 10 or 20 and 10 for
10:22like the next 10 years
10:24after his first few years uh or after his first year or so and uh debonta is gonna be i
10:30think really
10:31good peterson's gonna be good keel wilson to me is a little more question mark but yeah this draft class
10:36to me is so interesting because the first eight picks were freshmen so like they're all competing
10:42against each other in a way because they are have all competing against each other the entire you know
10:47career they've been at you know uh last night treas this is interesting because we have the headlines
10:54of you know peterson's not going to work out for the with or for only for the wizards and
10:59did was it a shock last night did they know that they weren't going to go first overall how much
11:04of
11:04that was because i think that this was you know candidly the first time in a long time that we
11:11walked
11:12into the night not knowing exactly that number one was going to be aj debonta i think that you know
11:18that was the heavy favorite but it wasn't a ben simmons we've known for five days this guy's the
11:25first pick you know i i think they his camp and him and it opened up a little more to
11:30it because
11:31utah went to visit him in canton you know this past weekend and he talked about that like uh and
11:38that he liked that but also he talked about when he met utah he said he told his agent like
11:43yeah i
11:43want to go number one like that's clear to me but you know i have a good connection with utah
11:48and you
11:49know like i i like them and like the whole instance of oh not working out with utah was just
11:54built on
11:55the fact that he wanted to go number one not because you know of any other reason uh and and
12:01he's
12:01like i think there's a misconception that people think i don't want to go there but he's like i'm excited
12:05i feel like i'm gonna fit in and great over there and ready to be there and and candidly like
12:10this is
12:10my whole thing with darren his camp's actions are so different than who darren peterson is sometimes
12:17that it's like hard to decipher like is this the agent slash dad you know running the show or is
12:25this
12:26how darren peterson really feels or is he using those two guys to shield himself in maneuvers for certain
12:32things that he wants and i think it's a mix of a little bit of both uh but i just
12:36feel like
12:37whenever i talk to darren like when he's not you know depressed because he's going through whatever
12:42he's going through at kansas um like i always just come off as like his personality is so different
12:49than like everyone makes it out to be like when he's feeling like himself he's a pretty happy-go-lucky
12:58guy he's not maybe the most talkative guy in the world but he comes off as pretty personable and i
13:04think that's something he really wasn't much of this year at kansas there's no protection in the nba
13:10it doesn't matter now and to your point dj agent abansa said he put his phone away and did not
13:15know
13:15until silver said his name like he gave his dad his phone he said he was like he didn't i
13:19don't know
13:20that that was intentional just for the surprise of it but yeah he said he didn't know until he walked
13:23up there um follow shrey's work at the kc star all the reporting on the draft up to the draft
13:29everything with darren peterson soon we'll be getting ready for football season basketball season
13:35trace we appreciate it yeah absolutely thanks for having me guys there goes trace a lot of what a night
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