For the second NBA draft in a row, no player with the name “Jalen” or a variant of it has been selected.
NBA players named Jalen (including alternative spellings, such as Jaylen, Jaylin, and so on) have become a dime a dozen in the NBA in recent years. It’s hard to keep them straight. As someone who has been paying close attention to this phenomenon in recent years and has been wondering whether we are doomed to an eternity of memorizing new Jalens each year, I found it notable that last year’s draft contained no new Jalens to add to our mental rosters. This week has seen me at the edge of my seat, waiting to see if the 2025 data point would become the start of a streak.
Here’s a list of all Jalens drafted going back to 2016, which was the first time a Jalen was drafted since Jalen Rose in 1994.
(In my opinion 2023 was the year that the Jalens jumped the shark).
With two years in the books and no Jalens sniffing the draft, and having looked ahead at 2027 draft prospect lists, I am confidently concluding that we have seen the end of “Generation Jalen”. For now.