Kyle Filipowski Draft Night / Grooming Controversy

Overview

Kyle Filipowski Draft Night / Grooming Controversy refers to the situation surrounding Duke Center Kyle Filipowski, who was expected to be taken in the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft but fell to the second round, where the Utah Jazz ultimately selected him. Some in the media and online speculated Filipowski, age 20, fell because of issues with his personal life, specifically that his fiancée, Caitlin Hutchison, purported to be 28, allegedly groomed him and indoctrinated him into Mormonism, causing him to sever ties with his family.

Background

On June 26th, 2024, the first round of the NBA Draft took place in Brooklyn, New York. Before the event, Duke Center Kyle Filipowski was thought to be a surefire first-round pick due to his athletic pedigree.^[1] However, the night ended with Filipowski still not drafted, leading sports pundits to question why. ESPN NBA Draft Analyst Jonathan Givony appeared on the Zach Lowe podcast after night one and said of Filipowski:

“You know the workouts weren't great, people tell me. There were question marks about the interviews. They said he was nervous. He didn't make shots at the pro day. You know what's going on with his girlfriend, this is all nonsense. It's hard to find a 7-footer like Kyle Filipowski who is this skilled. Somebody needs to draft him very early in the second round.”

Lowe interrupted Givony and asked what was going on with Filipowski's girlfriend. Givony said, "He has an older girlfriend. She's like 25 or 26, and people are like ‘Ah, this is weird.' It's like give me a freaking break guys,” but noted this came up "25 times" during Filipowski's interviews with NBA teams (interview shown below).

Developments

On June 27th, 2024, after Givony's comments, Twitter / X user @thewarnerwest^[2] tweeted the clip and said, "1) This led me down an insane Filipowski rabbit hole. 2) Givony doing Filipowski's girlfriend so many favors in his description. This looks like very iffy and suspect." In response, accounts allegedly belonging to Kyle's mother, Becky, and brother, Daniel, chimed in (Filipowski does have a mother named Rebecca and a brother named David, though it's not confirmed that these accounts belong to his mother and brother).

The account, allegedly belonging to Kyle's mother Becky, stated, "you are opening a two year issue…and she is 28 with an endgame 3 years ago to have a diamond ring on her hand when Kyle left Duke. HE WAS STILL IN HS"^[3] (shown below, left). His alleged brother Daniel^[4] stated, "I’m Kyle’s oldest brother..you all don’t have a clue of the extent of the story that has to do with his girlfriend. There’s a story that has been pushed under the table for nearly two years now" (shown below, right).

Daniel also insinuated Hutchinson "groomed" and "indoctrinated" his brother into Mormonism, writing, "look up and read on Mormon grooming and brainwashing and you’ll find some introductory details in there to connect some dots into the story that is going on here."^[5]

These tweets were highlighted in a tweet by Twitter user @RotoSurgeon^[10] that gained over 5,000 retweets and 34,000 likes in one day.

As of June 28th, 2024, sports reporters are attempting to uncover the story, though there has been no official comment from the Filipowskis apart from the tweets. SB Nation^[6] pointed out that a "most concerning" aspect of Kyle and Hutchinson's relationship is a 2022 Instagram post^[7] uploaded by Hutchinson and Filipowski that shows her attending Filipowski's senior high school prom as his date.

Filipowski was born on November 7th, 2003, making him 18 at the time of the photo. SB Nation reported that a deleted comment from Hutchinson on the photo read, "one year with my favorite person," suggesting they started dating when he was under the age of 18.

Filipowski was ultimately taken in the second round of the NBA Draft on June 27th, 2024, by the Utah Jazz.

Online Reactions

The story began spreading on social media as more parties became interested in what was going on between Filipowski and Hutchinson. TikToker @michael.carro^[8] posted a summary of the events on June 27th, 2024, gaining over 14,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). The betr^[9] account did the same, gaining over 42,000 likes in the same timeframe (shown below, right).

In mid-2024, there were also unconfirmed rumors circulating that Hutchinson could have been Filipowski's babysitter and/or cousin.^[11]

Search Interest

External References