‘I Deserve To Be Whatever I’m Picked’

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA – NOVEMBER 7: Caleb Wilson #8 of the North Carolina Tar Heels during a game against the Kansas Jayhawks at Dean E. Smith Center on November 7, 2025 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Ryan Hunt/Getty Images)

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Caleb Wilson is only a few sleeps away from the biggest night of his life.

On Tuesday night at Barclays Center, the 6-foot-10 North Carolina freshman forward will hear his name called by Commissioner Adam Silver in the NBA Draft.

Wilson is widely projected to go No. 4 to the Chicago Bulls – after AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson and Cam Boozer – but there’s a school of thought that Wilson may have the biggest upside of any player in this draft.

“I think in a lot of other drafts, he could be No. 2,” Paul Biancardi, ESPN’s national director of recruiting, said this week on a Zoom call with reporters. “And maybe in some drafts, he could be No. 1. He reminds me of James Worthy, who played at North Carolina. He has that type of game in my eyes. And we don’t know if his upside could be as good as Dybantsa or Peterson, or even Boozer.”

ESPN’s Jay Bilas said Wilson is “probably the most dynamic athlete in the draft.”

Wilson, who comes from a close-knit Southern family and is a country music fan, averaged 22.8 points and 10.8 rebounds in his lone season with the Tar Heels before his season ended prematurely due to a right thumb injury. He has a 7-foot wingspan, a 9-foot standing reach, and a 39.5-inch max vertical.

As far as his Draft stock, he is taking it in stride and doesn’t feel he necessarily deserves to go higher than No. 4.

“I deserve to be whatever I’m picked, that’s kind of how I feel” Wilson said Thursday in an exclusive interview. “Whatever franchise chooses to draft me, I’m going to impact their franchise very positively. I’ll be a piece of a very good franchise and a winning franchise no matter who I go to because of my impact.

“I feel like, if you draft me, you’ll get a winner, you’ll get someone who impacts your culture positively. So if that’s worth whatever pick I’m picked, I’ll be excited.”

With both ESPN and Tankathon among those projecting Wilson to the Windy City at No. 4, the 19-year-old Atlanta native is excited about the prospect of joining the Bulls, who finished 31-51 last season.

“I would be really excited to land there,” Wilson said. “I feel like I would bring a lot to their team, a lot of energy and charisma. Also I feel like I would be a leader, and that’s something I would bring to whatever team drafts me. And I would be as excited as I can be to be drafted by any team in the NBA because it’s always been a dream of mine.”

Wilson has been training in Los Angeles and says he’s basically 100 % after suffering a broken right thumb during practice in March. He was in the midst of his return-to-play process from a fractured hand he suffered in February when he broke his right thumb.

“My right thumb doesn’t have a fingernail, but we’re great, though,” he cracked. “It’s growing back, but it’s not all the way there yet.”

Without Wilson, North Carolina blew a 19-point lead to VCU and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Asked if it was frustrating not to be able to play in the Big Dance, Wilson said: “It wasn’t even frustrating, it was just kind of sad. I had been dreaming of that my whole life, so not having that kind of work out for me was really tough, but I always feel like God has a plan for me and I feel like I’ve learned so much about myself through my injury…It’s been good for me in other ways.”

Wilson is a big country music fan and after the season, he got a chance to join superstar Zach Bryan on stage in Charlotte. Wilson first heard one of his songs during a “Slam” magazine photo shoot, and after Bryan heard that Wilson liked his music he invited him up on stage for his song “Revival” during the encore.

“He told me he was gonna invite me up beforehand, but I didn’t even really believe it until I was up there, so it was crazy,” Wilson said. “It was a whole bunch of people and it was just a crazy experience.”

Since then, Wilson has been working out in Los Angeles, focusing on basics like shooting and dribbling ahead of the NBA Draft.

“It’s been a bunch of work on my consistency of shooting and I’ve been really working on my conditioning and being able to play through contact,” he said. “I’m really working on having a well-rounded game.”

Wilson served as an NBA correspondent during Game 1 of the NBA Finals, where he interviewed Knicks and Spurs players on the biggest stage of basketball.

During the Finals, he was struck by the play of Knicks wing OG Anunoby, who had the huge game-winning block and tip-in during New York’s historic 29-point comeback win in Game 4.

“A player that I really like, and I can’t say I model my game after him, but I do feel we have similarities, is OG Anunoby,” Wilson said. “He plays really smart, he plays kind of like a veteran, he’s just a great player. I’ve liked to watch him for a long time now, so he’s a player that I really like and admire.”

Wilson would love to cap his career with an NBA championship the way Anunoby did. But for now, he’s looking forward to Tuesday night and what comes after that.

It may well turn out that he has the biggest upside of anyone in this draft down the road.

“I wasn’t really able to show everything I could do at North Carolina,” he said. “I was just playing the role that I needed to play for us to win and be successful. But there’s a lot of untapped potential, a lot of things I can do now that people haven’t seen.

“So I’m excited to let it show, and of course I’ll get better over time, stronger and things like that, so I feel like I’ll end up being a very good, well-rounded player.”