Jason Burgos
Kansas star Darryn Peterson offered up a wild explanation to ease the concerns of some teams ahead of next month’s NBA Draft.
To many basketball evaluators, there was no more exciting NBA prospect in the 2025-26 college basketball season than the Jayhawks guard because the freshman was one of the most polished scorers in the country. He has a fantastic mid-range game but can also be a force going to the basket and from three. But he doesn’t need to be a ball hog and can be dangerous without it.
Furthermore, the 6-foot-5 guard has the wingspan of a 6-foot-10 player, and it plays a key role — along with his athleticism — in why he is also a difference maker on the defensive side of the ball. He has the potential to be a perennial All-Star at the next level. However, there was one major knock against him in his lone season at Kansas: His availability.
Of the Jayhawks’ 35 games, Peterson missed 11 of them, and there were instances where he asked out of games early while on heaters. It created questions about how dedicated he was to winning, as cramps of all things often seemed to be the excuse.
Well, this week, Peterson tried to quiet some of the doubters about possibly being the No. 1 pick in June’s draft with an explanation for the cramping issues. The 19-year-old told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne that “a new round of bloodwork and other tests” by doctors during the pre-draft process discovered that creatine was the culprit in his cramping.
Darryn Peterson feared dying during September cramping incident
“I’d never taken it before, but after the season, I took two weeks off, and they did tests which showed my baseline level was already high,” he said. “So, they said when I dosed [a process of increasing a dose over time to create maximum benefit at the beginning of taking a supplement], it must’ve made the levels unsafe.”
Peterson revealed that his cramping got so bad at a Kansas boot camp in September that he actually feared he might die.
“I made it to the training room and just started begging them to call 911,” Peterson recalled about the cramping he felt in his legs, stomach, back, arms, and hands. “They were trying to get a vein to get me the IV, get me back hydrated. But I was cramping so hard they couldn’t get a vein. I thought I was going to die on the training table that day.”
In recent mock drafts, Peterson is projected to go to the Indiana Pacers (No. 2) or Brooklyn Nets (No. 2) in Round 1 of the NBA Draft.
