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Noa Essengue is currently gearing up for his first season with the Bulls after being selected in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft. He managed to end up at the center of a summer league highlight for all of the wrong reasons, and his reaction to getting posterized by Johnny Furphy caused a couple of SportsCenter anchors to lose it on the air.
I’ve been lucky enough to interview dozens of professional athletes over the years, and one of my favorite topics to bring up when chatting with them is the moment they realized they were going to have their work cut out for them after making the leap to the next level and encountering a stiffer form of competition than they’d ever faced before.
There are plenty of basketball players who can vividly recall what is best described as their “Welcome To The NBA” Moment, and while Noa Essengue still hasn’t played in a regular season game, it seems safe to assume the Bulls forward checked that box when his squad faced off against the Pacers in a summer league showdown in Las Vegas on Sunday.
Johnny Furphy put Noa Essengue on a poster and SportsCenter anchors couldn’t keep it together
Essengue was born and raised in France and initially made a name for himself in his native country before heading to Germany to play for Ratiopharm Ulm in 2023. His play was impressive enough to attract the interest of the Bulls, who selected him with the 12th overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft.
The forward had 12 points in his summer league debut against the Raptors and posted just five against the Kings before exploding for 21 against the Pacers on Sunday.
Indiana’s Johnny Furphy had 15 in that tilt, but none of those buckets stood out more than the one that came at Essengue’s expense thanks to the dunk where the former tied things up with around three minutes to go in the first half.
JOHNNY FURPHY MY GOODNESS 🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/jjQYQJ4gLP
— NBA (@NBA) July 14, 2025
Pacers’ team photographer Logan Kassel snapped a picture of the fateful moment Furphy jammed the bucket home over the 18-year-old Frenchman, and Nicole Briscoe and Ryan Smith could not keep it together after the snapshot was featured on SportsCenter; the latter referred to it as “the worst poster I’ve seen in my life” as his colleague joined him in cracking up while bent over on the desk.
This poster dunk was so soul-crushing that it derailed SportsCenter. 🏀🔨📺🎙️🤣 #NBA #ESPN pic.twitter.com/t7V3Yqhbz4
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 15, 2025
Thoughts and prayers.