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Same Time, Next Year
July 19, 2007 - 4:40amIt’s almost August, and many sports fans have stopped caring about the NBA (except me, who rejoiced when the Nets decided not to overpay Mikki Moore). Baseball rules the world right now, NFL training camp is around the corner and David Beckham is about to supplant Kobe Bryant as one of the four people ESPN talks about (along with Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez). That is why this will be my last NBA draft blog and next week I will be back about something else. For this entry, though, I want to point out the key college players for next year’s draft. Like last year, which boasted top-4 picks Greg Oden, Kevin Durant and Mike Conley, Jr., there is another bumper crop of freshmen this season, along with a number of veteran prospects.
Sleepless in Milwaukee
July 13, 2007 - 1:44amI was going to write my last NBA Draft blog this week, but after the latest installment of “How Yi Jianlian Turns,” I had to extend it for at least a week. It is not often that a top-10 player refuses to play for the team that drafts him, so I had to write about it. Yi was drafted by Milwaukee even though he had previously made it clear that he did not want to play there. He had not invited the Bucks to his private workout, and had expressed concern about the fact that there were only 1,200 Asian-Americans in the city, approximately the same amount of people who saw Gigli in theatres.
An S/U Draft
July 4, 2007 - 5:11amWell the draft is finally over, which means you won’t hear the name Brandon Wright again until Francis Ford Coppola makes another movie. We have reached that time of year when all the draft pundits around the world grade each team’s performance in the draft. Of course, this is a silly proposition; right now, who would know whether taking Gilbert Arenas in the second round would be a good move or that taking Kwame Brown first overall would be a bad move?
Not a Good Draft, a GREAT Draft
June 29, 2007 - 10:51amI wrote my mock draft last Sunday, but by yesterday, it seemed as dated as Austin Powers. Rumors were flying that Kevin Garnett would be traded to anyone from Boston to Phoenix to Los Angeles to Golden State to Peoria. Indiana was trying to play the Lakers and the Nets off one another for Jermaine O’Neal. Prospects such as Sean Williams and Glen Davis were shooting up mock drafts, as general managers apparently instantly forgot about Williams’s drug troubles and Davis’s weight problems. Other guys such as Julian Wright and Thaddeus Young, once locks for lottery picks, possibly might go in the 20s. Finally, the draft is upon us, and here are my thoughts about the big issues as the draft unfolds.
Where Have You Gone, Omar Cook?
June 20, 2007 - 10:49amIn between watching reruns of The Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Inferno and trying to figure out how Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer made so much money at the box office, you may have missed a critical piece of NBA Draft news. This past Monday was the deadline for players who had not yet signed with agents to withdraw from the draft. Some players rolled the dice and stayed in the draft, while some apparently missed frat parties and D.P. Dough and decided to return to college.
The Knowns and the Unknowns
June 13, 2007 - 11:19amO.K., it’s official. The NBA Finals are about as exciting as watching The Sorrow and the Pity. For those of us who are fans of teams other than the San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers, it’s time to start getting excited about who our team is going to draft. Unless you have been living under a rock or haven’t followed basketball since Eddie was released, you’ve probably heard of megastars Greg Oden, Kevin Durant and Joakim Noah.
What the MLB can learn from the NBA draft
June 6, 2007 - 2:57pmLooking for something to do at work this Thursday, June 7? Aside from reading cornelldailysun.com of course, I have another option for you – following the MLB draft. A 50-round draft might seem as boring as reading a Reader’s Digest article about the tax codes, but it actually is fun to follow. This year, for the first time, the MLB draft is being televised on ESPN2, which means that either the World’s Strongest Man Competition or competitive miniature golf will be bumped from the schedule. With the extra media scrutiny on the MLB process, I want to point out a few flaws and compare the MLB draft to the NBA draft. There are many issues I have with the MLB draft that need to be fixed, and commissioner Bud Selig should take a long look at the NBA draft for ideas.
Oden vs. Durant
May 31, 2007 - 9:40amGreg Oden or Kevin Durant? Kevin Durant or Greg Oden? This debate reminds me of a great essay Chuck Klosterman wrote about Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, when he joked that whoever you support would explain everything about your personality. Things are not so clear cut with Oden and Durant. Nevertheless, everyone still has an opinion about it, but the only team that matters is the Portland Trail Blazers, who are in the enviable position of having to decide between the two of them. The decision will affect the franchise for years to come. So as the second of my NBA draft blogs, I will analyze both players, play general manager and make a decision. And remember, check cornelldailysun.com every week for this draft blog (probably Wednesdays) until I post my mock draft the day before the draft.
NBA Draft Blog, Part I
May 23, 2007 - 6:10pmIt is summertime, and you know what that means, the NBA draft is upon us! The NBA playoffs are boring, with two conference finals that seem to be already over. If the Pistons play the Spurs in the finals, the NBA might need to hold an American Idol competition at halftime to boost ratings. The NHL has Anaheim and Ottawa in its Stanley Cup Finals. While this is a good matchup for hockey fans (even though I would have liked to see Buffalo), no one cares about Anaheim and no one knows where (or what) Ottawa is. Baseball is in full-swing, but the regular season is a marathon, not a sprint. And with the Red Sox and Yankees playing each other about 273 times per year, I cannot get excited, at least not until the All-Star Break.
So I am pumped about the NBA Draft. I love drafts, and the NBA draft is special for its hilarious three-piece suits and pithy comments by David Stern. For the next few weeks, I will blog about the Draft once a week (I will also continue my lacrosse blog until the end of the season). So check out cornelldailysun.com every week, probably every Wednesday, to read my thoughts on the process. And make sure to check out the site the day before the draft to read my first-round Mock Draft.