Behind the Scenes: Khaman Maluach’s NBA Draft Night Phone Call | Phoenix Suns

Behind the Scenes: Khaman Maluach’s NBA Draft Night Phone Call | Phoenix Suns

Come on, Malawash. Come on, South Sudan. Hey, man. How you doing this summer right here?
Come on. How you doing? This is Brian Gregory. I’m the general manager here. How you feeling, buddy? Excited, man. I’m just excited to get a finish.
Yeah, it’s it’s you had a great journey and we can’t wait to get you here. I’m I’m with uh Coach Jordan, our new head coach, and Matt Ishbar, our owner. Why don’t you say hello to those two guys? How how y’all doing, man? How’s everything?
Great. This is uh Coach Jordan. We’re so excited. Congratulations.
Thank you so much, coach. Thank you so much.
Take a deep breath, my man. Enjoy it. Enjoy this night with your family. We’re super excited to bring you here to Phoenix. Um can’t wait to get you here, but definitely definitely take the time to enjoy it with your family. It’s a special night.
Thank you so much, man. Thank you for the opportunity. I got you, man.
Here’s our owner. Hey, just we just want to say congratulations. We’re real excited. We were hoping we can get you and we’ve been talking about you for a while. So, just really excited to have you out here in Phoenix and uh do some great things for years to come.
Thank you so much, man. I’m so excited to be there. Awesome. Well, we can’t wait to get you out here. Here’s BG right back.
Hey buddy, who who’s out there with you? Is your family out there?
Yeah, my family, my two sisters are here and um I had them on my table and my one of my best friends and uh he was on the table with me too. Fantastic. Well, as coach Odd said, enjoy tonight. You’ve earned it. And uh then get ready to let’s get to work. Okay.
Thank you so much, coach. Let’s go to work.
All right. You got it, buddy. Have a great night. Thanks.
Have a great night, too. Appreciate you. Appreciate you. Wow.
He’s good, man. He’s good, man. He’s good.
Our kind of guy, too.
Yeah. Yeah.
So excited, man. I feel relieved like knowing where I’m going. Like, I feel free. I feel a lot of weight off my shoulders cuz I mean it’s been a tough couple of days and now finally I’m here and I know where I’m going and it’s Phoenix.

Selected 10th overall, Khaman Maluach was the top moment of the 2025 NBA Draft after his emotional reaction to being drafted immediately went viral. The journey behind the Sun’s new big man quickly arose as one of the most inspiring stories of the night.

Take a behind-the-scenes look at the call which made it official as Suns owner Mat Ishbia, General Manager Brian Gregory and Head Coach Jordan Ott speak with Khaman and welcome him to the Valley.

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