Sham’s unnecessarily long 2009 draft diary, part 1
June 26th, 2009
Last year’s draft night was arguably the best day of my life. The 2007 draft night before that is its only competitor. I mean that, too. Sort of.
It never makes for especially brilliant television, but to know that dozens of executives all over the country are making more news in a 12-hour period than in the previous 12 months combined is kind of pulsating. In the course of a day and a night, rosters, directions and allegiances will change. We spend weeks and months in advance predicting what’s going to happen on this one night, only to find that, sure as hell, we’re all more wrong than a Myra Hindley Christmas album. It’s great fun.
I’m a bit apprehensive of this draft, though. This draft will be unlike any other for me, for this is the first draft I’ll have watched in which I know anything about the players involved. Before this season, I had not watched the NCAA before outside of a handful of games, for the simple reason that it wasn’t on the telly. However, this year, for whatever reason, it was. And so in keeping with my usual approach (take note ladies), I went at it hardcore, gave it my all, didn’t want to miss a single inch of skin/minute of action, and strove to be better at it than everyone else in the world (particularly that inferior man you’re currently with).
Because of that, I’m going to miss out on what I’ve always considered to be the highlight of draft night; the ability to judge people for life based off of a few short clips, what kind of suit they’re wearing, their post-selection interview, a short speech by Jay Bilas and the timeless “Must Improve” captions that so effortlessly make the work of drafting websites utterly redundant.
I don’t yet know if this is a good thing.
As was the case with last year’s draft, due to my social life full of partying, hard living and explosive excitement at all times, I missed the whole day of build-up to the event. I missed out on the moves that were made, not least of which were the Shaq and Vince Carter trades. (Speaking of, A: did Cleveland need to get slower and less athletic? and B: even as a fan of his, I’m far from overwhelmed by a trade that sees Courtney Lee be the best returning player in a Vince Carter deal. Hope the sale of the Nets goes well, Bruce Ratner.)
I also had to scramble to even watch the Draft in the first place, stuck as I am on an internet connection with speed that rivals an arthritic Pavel Podkolzin in a game of musical statues. So I went to my friend Luke’s house, to stay up all night and watch the draft downstairs as he slept upstairs, with him perhaps a little freaked out by the whole thing. Or that was the plan, at least. Gallantly, despite not knowing or caring a little bit about basketball, he watched a bit of it with me. He’s a good sport. It’s a good sport.
I got there at 11pm, 90 minutes before the start of the draft, and started to pick through the bones of all the news that I had missed out on. But this was soon sabotaged by the shock revelation that Michael Jackson had died. On draft night, too. The selfish bastard. When I would have liked to have spent the next hour reading up on completed deals, rumoured deals, and putting to paper my views on the Richard Jefferson deal (which may still be posted about a week too late, FYI), I instead spent that time talking about that while trying to think of the world’s best Michael Jackson joke to start via text message. (I ended up going with what I thought was quite a good Farrah Fawcett gag. It failed.)
Nevertheless, I got it all out of my system eventually, and settled in to watch the draft unfurl with a glass of milk and a half-eaten biro at the ready. Eleven pages of notes later, this is what I came up with. Enjoy it.
(NB: Written in real time, even though it isn’t, because it was. If that makes sense. Also done in a Twitter-like fashion, because the kids go for all that jazz these days. Apparently.)
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00.01: We’re underway. Tonight’s line-up: Stu Scott on the drums, Jay Bilas on the bass, Jeff Van Gundy on rhythm guitar, Mark Jackson on the keys and Dick Vitale as lead vocalist, with Fran Frischilla, Ric Bucher and Andy Katz as guest guitarists. The same as last year, basically. Except we’ve lost Stephen A. Smith.
00.04: Apparently the Jamal Crawford to Atlanta trade, which was initially supposed to be held up until July 8th for no reason at all, went through early. The value for Atlanta is great, and if given a sixth man role Crawford could thrive, just like Ronald Murray did last year. Then again, they could surely bring back Murray to do the same job for a far lesser price. But still. It’s a trade. And trades are good. Dictatorial and slightly authoritarian, but good anyway. Things have started well.
00.05: Also, the Lakers have apparently agreed to sell their 29th pick to the Knicks, in a deal which can’t be consummated until after the pick has been made due to the Lakers still owing Memphis their 2010 first-round pick as a part of the Pau Gasol deal. Selling this year’s pick seems silly. Someone should tell the Lakers that while they did just win the title, they also need to improve their team, and that if they spend all their money on only bringing back last year’s team, they’re going to lose. Late first-round draft picks are good ways to bring in cheap bench talent, something which every team could use. But now they’ve taken themselves out of the running. Also, I don’t know if you know this Jerry Buss, but you’re REALLY RICH, and the Lakers only make you richer. So up the payroll, you big jessie.
00.05: An early FYI: Amar’e Stoudemire either is or isn’t going to the Warriors, according to Ric Bucher and his slicked-back hair. It’s all good information. I’m writing it down. Also, their version of the proposed deal sees Amar’e Stoudemire going to the Warriors for Andris Biedrins, Marco Belinelli and Brandan Wright, taking great care to spell Amar’e’s new-fangled name right, but not Wright’s. Don’t worry, Brandan. When you’re as good as Amar’e is, they’ll care.
00.06: If there’s any legs to that rumour, then the Bulls had better top that deal, regardless of his eye surgery and the size of his extension. Some risks are worth taking. (Oh, in case you didn’t know, I’m a Bulls fan. Expect bias.)
00.07: Oh wow, Danny Larue died last month and no one told me. Sorry MJ, but you just got usurped.
00.07: “You got usurped” was the working title for “You got served”, by the way.
00.08: Last season, Stephen A. Smith suffered the ignominy of being bumped from the panel of analysts, reduced to the role of a mere interviewer. He looked simultaneously sad and listless all night, wondering how things could have gotten so bad. Well, they got worse after that, and he was fired by the network, so now he’s not here at all. Neither is Doris Burke, whose fine work of last season wasn’t enough to see her keep her job, as Lisa Salters gets a turn at being the only female this year. And someone called John Barr is in Cleveland, getting ready to do some cavilingus on whoever he can find to interview about the Shaq trade.
00.10: Someone just alerted me to http://www.ismichaeljacksonalive.com. Good fun. But how they got that site up within an hour of his death, I do not know. Someone must have bought that domain some time in advance. Spooky stuff.
00.11: Way too much ticker on the screen tonight. Seriously.
00.12: Apparently Steve Nash wanted Shaq traded. Can’t imagine why. I wonder who Shaq’s going to backstab this time. I vote Goran Dragic.
00.13: Interesting point someone just made: Shaq has now played with a prime Penny Hardaway, a prime Kobe Bryant, a prime Dwayne Wade, a prime Steve Nash, and now a prime LeBron James. Yet he has only four rings. How do you have only four if you’re one of the greatest of all time and you played with that lot? Tim Duncan has four, and he did it with either the shell of David Robinson, or the inherently flawed Tony Parker. Compared to that, Shaq just doesn’t compare.
00.16: I’m a heterosexual male, and so confident am I in that that I can tell you without fear of reprisal that Jay Bilas is just dreamy. Look at that jawline. Look at those shoulders. The teeth. And the soothing dulcet baritones. Such an alpha male. I’ll believe anything he tells me. Anyhoo….
00.18: ESPN has decided to focus their draft build up on Blake Griffin. Apparently they think he might be picked first overall. I’m not convinced.
00.23: I am distracted from the pre-draft Griffin-up by an interview that’s taking place on Sky News with Hollywood actor and musical legend, Joe Pesci, about the death of Michael Jackson. Anything that involves Joe Pesci talking is hard to ignore, and the fact that he’s talking about the death of a legend is secondary to his always-amusing vowel sounds. Good times. I wonder if Pesci will do a tribute to Jacko on his next album.
(You didn’t know Joe Pesci had an album? You should. It’s bloody brilliant, I tell you. Particularly the Jim Reeves cover. There’s also a music for a Pesci original rap song called “Wise Guy”, which I will proffer for you now.)
(No, I didn’t believe it at first either. But there it is. Remember kids; it’s the bitchez that’ll get yuz.)
00.25: Mark Jones is interviewing Ricky Rubio, which gives me my first taste of Rubio’s voice. And it’s hilarious. He sounds like Glenn Quagmire doing an impression of Speedy Gonzalez. More good times. Also, if you were wondering if this Mark Jones is THE Mark Jones – former Orlando Magic shooting guard Mark Jones – then let me help you with that; he is not. Shame.
00.26: Luke is wondering if he can get a refund on his Michael Jackson tickets. I’m pretty confident that he will, although I’m also pretty confident that the show won’t be any worse than it would have been anyway.
00.27: The first Dick Vitale moment of the night happens. Prior to this year, the only things I knew about Dick Vitale were these draft night cameos from his front room, his voice (lifted directly from a heavily constipated Johnny Vegas) and his frankly sensational porn star name. But now that I’ve watched him work as a commentator for over a year, I’ve got one more to add to that; I struggle with him. And the reason I struggle with him is because, when he gets excited, he ends every sentence in an imperfect cadence. Yes, this is reason enough.
He’s not doing that in this draft night rant, though, which is a relief. The rant goes on for 50 seconds, and included only one use of the term ‘baby’. That’s even more of a relief.
00.28: Here’s a picture of Blake Griffin.
That is all.
00.29: ESPN bridges the gap between the end of the 30-minute countdown and the start of the five-minute countdown with a montage of some of the high picks. Ironically (or foolishly) they have Hasheem Thabeet point at the camera as say “THIS IS MY TIME!!!” just before the #1 pick is announced. Even at this late stage, I’m not putting it totally past Dunleavy.
00.30: The customary Red Pepper voiceover happens. That means we’re starting. RIP Don LaFontaine. Let’s do this.
00.31: We are treated to the customary “war room” shot that is so unnecessarily obligatory before the #1 pick is made. Nothing’s happening. Lots of people are sitting around a table, and Mike Dunleavy is in the middle, smiling dauntingly, not wearing a tie. I don’t need to see this. I didn’t need to see it last year, either. The Clippers have only one pick; it’s the first pick, they know who they’re taking, and we know who they’re taking. It’s the ultimate formality. So instead of looking at men in suits getting ready to clap, here’s a monkey on a bike.
(Joe Pesci samples that tune on his album, by the way.)
00.31: David Stern comes to the microphone for the opening speech, and comments on the crowd being a “rowdy lot tonight”. He’s not kidding. Oh by the way, the NBA might be moving the draft to Los Angeles. These two facts are not related in any way.
00.31: Stern’s speech marks the beginning of a five-minute wait before the Clippers can make the first overall pick. The idea here is the team uses these five minutes to decide on who they’re going to draft, but, since we’ve already seen Mike Dunleavy loafing about, nonchalant, here’s another monkey on a bike.
00.32: ESPN throws up a ‘Clippers depth chart’ caption that features Zach Randolph coming off of the bench behind Chris Kaman and Marcus Camby. Either they know something that we don’t, or they know nothing.
00.33: Stern comes to the podium to announce the pick, mercifully before the full five minutes has elapsed. When he does so, a little ditty plays before he starts talking, just like it has done in every pick in every draft that I’ve ever seen. Does anyone know why this ditty plays?
00.33: Stern announces that Griffin is taken #1 over all, and Griffin gallantly puts on an oh-dude-I-totally-had-no-idea face as he hugs his brother, his family and two random people, before making his way up to receive his lifelong dream of a Clippers hat. The analyst’s brief run down of Griffin reveals nothing we didn’t already know (he’s quite good, apparently), and this prompts ESPN to find some filler material. They first cut back to the Clippers war room – where Dunleavy is now in only his underwear listening to Kenny Loggins records and dealing cards to himself – before showing us a replay of Blake Griffin standing up. I watched this replay really intensely to see if I’d missed something interesting that necessitated it being shown again. I hadn’t.
00.35: Mark Jones isn’t wearing a tie, either. Make an effort man, for God’s sake.
00.36: Here’s my question: if you’re 6’9, why would you choose to go into the only profession in which you could ever be considered to be “too short”?
00.37: It’s Memphis’ turn, and there’s genuine intrigue now. In previous years, the top of the draft has been about as subtle as a punch in the face. You know who’s going to be picked by whom, and watching the first five or so picks happening was just a procession. But not this year. As early as #2, we’ve already got a poser. The clear-cut #2 in this draft is Rubio, but he said he won’t sign with Memphis. Thabeet has pretty much said the same, and the other two candidates (James Harden and Tyreke Evans) play the same as last year’s #3 overall pick, O.J. Mayo. This puts Memphis in a quandary, where the logical pick refuses to play for them and the rest aren’t particularly good fits. They could trade down still, or they could trade out of the draft altogether. It’s all possible. Personally, I’m hoping they’ll call Rubio’s bluff and take him anyway. And why not? Who was the last top five pick not to sign with the team that picked him? Even Steve Francis would have signed with Vancouver, eventually. Maybe.
00.40: Failing that, I want them to draft James Harden, because a Harden/Gay pairing can’t fail. I’m still rueing the premature demise of the Gay/Love pairing of last year. It’s still funny to me. (Luther Head is a free agent, by the way.)
00.43: Cameras cut to the Grizzlies war room. Something’s actually happening in there – a man is adjusting something on a wall. In relative terms, it’s like an M. Night Shyamalan film, yet it’s still ultimately boring. If I had a childish mind, the proper means at my disposal, and a highly accurate impersonation of Mike Dunleavy in my arsenal, I’d ring them right now and talk about a Griffin trade. I really would. The lesson here; don’t give me a position of authority.
00.45: After a generous five minute wait, the Grizzlies ignore me and pick Thabeet. Brilliant. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. This draft is so bad that a specialist was just picked second overall. Because that’s what he is – a specialist. He’s not Dikembe Mutombo and he’s not going to be. He’s not more than an opportunity scorer, and he’s not going to be. He is what he is – he’s a shot-blocking specialist. And now he’s going second. Nice draft, this.
00.46: Also, I don’t want to be the one who has to make him and Marc Gasol work together on the court. That’s a tough ask, since, you know, they’re both centres. Memphis now has two starting centres and no starting point guard or power forward. And I’m sure that they would have picked Rubio were it not for the hostage situation that would have unfolded.
That said, I don’t blame Rubio for standing his ground here. As much as we enjoy the draft, we have to realise that it’s an utterly stupid system bordering on slavery. (Maybe.) A system that promotes parity amongst the league is fine, but it only partly works, and it doesn’t take into consideration the wishes of the players involved. It’s pretty ridiculous that we see these situations where an American kid who pursues their dream of becoming a professional sportsman for his whole childhood, finally fulfils their dream and achieves the status of being an NBA-calibre talent, is then susceptible to a backwards system that sees his place of work dictated for him for a number of years, where he has to move across the country if someone tells him to, where he has no freedom to choose where he plays or what he gets paid, and where the only option available to him if he decides not to go along with it is to either kick up a stink (with the obvious negative connotations that would arise from that; ‘oooh, he’s a bad egg’), or to emigrate and play in another country, because he hasn’t the freedom to choose his own path in his own country. In a predominantly Christian society supposedly based on free will and determinism, in the self-anointed land of the free, we have this.
00.48: Thabeet’s on-screen profile says that he “Must Improve: Offensive Game”. You’ve got to love that caption when dealing with a #2 pick.
00.49: For some reason, Mark Jones’ interview table has a motif of a jigsaw puzzle piece. I don’t get this.
00.49: Thabeet mentions in his interview that part of his development as a player has been ‘going from kicking it with my feet to using my hands’. If your cockles weren’t already warmed by the caption, you’re probably soggy with excitement over the pick now,
00.50:Oklahoma City is up next, and if they don’t pick Ricky Rubio because of the presence of Russell Westbrook, then I’m leaving. Jay Bilas seems to disagree with me, as he wants Harden and Evans to be picked before Rubio. I know he’s wrong.
00.51: …nope, apparently he’s right. OKC picks Harden, so apparently they envision Westbrook as a point guard. The camera cuts to Ricky Rubio clapping the pick and smiling weakly. This needn’t have happened.
00.52: Not only does James Harden play like John Salmons, he also looks a bit like him. This somewhat parallels the Matt Devlin/Lionel Hutz likeness, which is both an audio and visual experience. It’s also not necessarily a bad thing, because John Salmons is pretty good. Although hopefully it won’t take Harden longer than his rookie contract to get to that kind of standard, like it did with Fish.
00.54: Jay Bilas is on a roll, and he has gotten the first three picks right so far. His tail is up, and now he compares James Harden to Brandon Roy. Once again I think he’s wrong, but that hasn’t done me any favours so far, so I’ll be pragmatic about it and acknowledge the possibility. I’m also forced to change my stance on Rubio-over-Harden once I see Harden’s outfit for the evening, a stunning combination of waistcoat and bowtie that I can only hope to be able to carry off some day.
00.55: Harden says “I will work hard”. That’s good. If he hadn’t said it, I would have had to assume that he’d work only casually.
00.55: A caption with the Kings’ depth chart on it flashes up, and I have to explain to Luke that Spencer Hawes’ first name is not “C”.
00.56: Jeff Van Gundy is on the panel again this year, and he’s clearly worked hard to make improvements over the offseason. Last season, Van Gundy dodged all questions about the draftees by instead talking about other player’s on the teams roster, a strategy which culminated with his utterly baffling claim that the Knicks didn’t need a point guard because they had Stephon Marbury. This year, though, he came prepared, and unloads onto us a packed diatribe about the strengths and weaknesses of Tyreke Evans’ game, and why he’d be a good pick for the Kings at #4. If he’s not picked now, Jeff’ll be crushed.
00.57: Fortunately, Jeff is spared. The team with Kevin Martin at two guard and Beno Udrih at point guard just picked Evans, who projects as a two guard, in a point guard-heavy draft with Rubio still on board. Yeah, I see what they did there. They chickened out of picking Rubio, that’s what they did. Presumably, had they picked Rubio, America would have had to go to war with Spain or something catastrophic, and the Spanish are fearsome in battle. They build big Armadas and things, they’re unsinkable. (Well, unsinkable unless you can enlist the English, that is.) Whether they choose to play Evans at point guard anyway is up for debate, but the answer had better be “yes”.
00.58: Jay Bilas is now 4-4, far surpassing last year’s 2-2 start before Brook Lopez’s inexplicable slide. A gentle excited squeaky noise can be heard from somewhere about his person.
00.58: In his post-selection interview, Evans reassures us that he will work hard. Wow! Two hard workers in the same draft! We got lucky this year.
00.58: Farrah Fawcett’s dead, man. Only now has it hit home.
00.59: You know, after Minnesota fleeced Washington for the #5 pick this year, it was rumoured that they might package the #5 with the #18 to move up and take Rubio. They obviously didn’t, but as it turns out, they didn’t have to.
01.00: Mark Jones surprises us with the news that Tyreke Evans’s nickname is “Hugo”. Here’s some more Tyreke Evans trivia that’s less broadcastable but equally true; Tyreke Evans was once accidentally the getaway driver in a murder his cousin committed. Easy mistake to make. Happened to me only last week.
01.02: Minnesota takes Rubio, and the cameras cut to their war room, where surprisingly a table can be seen without a massive open bag of coke on it. Sadly, we also don’t see a glimpse of Fred Hoiberg. Maybe it would have been better to cut to the Wizards’ war room instead. It can be fun to watch people cry.
01.04: A Rubio highlight montage consists almost solely of look-away passes. Jointly, me and Luke now anoint Rubio as “Mr Bait ‘N’ Switch”. It’s funnier if you know us, to be fair.
Also included in the montage was a clip of one jump shot. He missed it. The follow-up caption said “Must Improve: Jumpshooting”. Damn they’re good at this.
01.06: Rubio says “I know what is rough” and “I am Ricky Rubio” in consecutive answers. I’m now tempted to call him Rocky. However, he didn’t say at any point that he was going to work hard, so he’s clearly never going to reach his potential now.
01.08: JVG implores that Minnesota should pick a backup to Rubio with the #6 pick. Considering that the only shooting guard on their roster right now is Rodney Carney, who is an unrestricted free agent as of six day’s time, this seems like a weird thing to ask for. Nevertheless, Kahn and the Wolves oblige him by picking Jonny Flynn, Syracuse point guard and reputed kitten murderer. If they don’t think the two can play together at a later date, then the pick is extremely weird, and if they DO think that they can play together…..well, they’re wrong. Neither is a good defender of quick opponents, nor will either ever have shooting guard size, and neither is effective without the ball or a good outside shooter. Yet somehow they have to take those concurrent weaknesses and find a way to coexist. I think David Kahn just made his first whoopsie.
01.10: Jay Bilas says that Flynn suffers from being “only 5’11”. Within seconds, a caption shows up listing Flynn as being 6’0 1/2. It’s a slick production, this, made only somewhat less slick by the constant background noise of Stu Scott’s breathing. The caption also says that Flynn must improve his decision making; whether this applies only to basketball, or also to his feline homicide tendencies, we can only guess.
01.11: Flynn shows more charisma in his interview than the previous five draftees welded together, and like Rubio, he also talks about how tough he is. What’s better than one Rocky Rubio? Two Rocky Rubios. And Battenburg cake. (Good news! There’s still room for judging people on first impressions only. All is not lost.)
By the way, I’ve seen a boatload of Syracuse, and Flynn is probably too high here. He has more upside than most, with his athleticism, passing vision and aggressiveness, but he’s also a poor defender, mediocre shooter, and prone to going out of control. He’s pretty good, though, and he’s partly why Syracuse are my favourite NCAA team. The variety of other reasons:
1) They had about 786 televised games over here for some reason.
2) They only played seven guys, one of whom was an unskilled Belgian.
3) Eric Devendorf has a potty mouth.
Of course, all of these are going to have changed or become redundant by next season. But I can fair-weather it up if I so wish.
01.12: Tip for anyone with a lazy eye – put your glasses on straight, Scott has tilted his at a rakish angle to try and combat the fallen iris, but it’s not fooling anybody.
01.13: Mark Jones drops the word “seminal” in an interview. As a keen promoter of that word, I’m claiming some credit for that. If he says “giggidy” later on then I’ll know I have some sway.
01.14: Everyone other than a beaming Jeff Van Gundy is a bit confused by the back-to-back point guards thing, and a baffled Stu Scott throws it over to Ric Bucher for word on whether the Wolves picked Flynn only to trade him. Bucher announces, with a tinge of fear in his voice, that the Wolves are intent on keeping them both. They start two power forwards, I guess, so starting two point guards can’t be that hard.
Question: if Washington had kept the #5, would they have drafted Rubio, and if they didn’t, would a Randy Foye/Rubio backcourt have worked out? I vote no and yes. But nonetheless, the Timberwolves don’t have to play Sebastian Telfair any more, so it can’t be that bad. And if they really struggle for a shooting guard, let’s get Hoiberg to make a comeback.
01.15:Golden State picks Stephen Curry with the #7 pick, a move which the “rowdy lot” boo venomously. This leads to the following exchange:
Luke: “Why are they booing it?” Me: “Because the draft’s held in New York, New York pick next, and their fans really wanted Curry.” Luke: “Oh. He should have played worse.”
Good point.
01.15: You know, if you could do cut-and-shut jobs with NBA players, sticking Curry and Flynn together would give you one hell of a point guard. (That pointless thought and arbitrary statement was easily my most lucid moment of insight all night. I should get an analyst’s gig.)
01.16: Jay Bilas has now picked the first seven picks correctly. His smile stretches from shoulder to shoulder and can be seen from space.
01.17: Before interviewing Stephen, his dad Dell Curry gets interviewed, largely as he’s an ex-NBA player. This makes him no more exciting of an interview. But it does prompt the following exchange:
Me: “I had a dell curry once. Pretty tasty.”
Luke: “Well, Dell will sponsor anything these days.”
We’re taking this double act on the road, by the way. Book early. Book often. (NB: if one of us were to die, no refunds.)
01.18: As I watch Stephen Curry sit there in a mismatched tie and jacket, with a pre-teen boy’s beard on his chin, spouting a succession of generic statements in a voice handed down to him by his father, and being subjected to a realm of stereotypical analysis about how he “understands the game”, I am reminded of how much worse the world will be now that Michael Jackson is dead. It’s a bugger. Let’s do the man a favour; scrub the last 15 years from the record, and remember him for what he was before it all went wrong – weird, but a brilliant talent. (Unless, of course, he actually…did that thing. I guess we’ll never know.)
01.20:New York reacts to the Curry pick by picking Jordan Hill with the 8th pick, to a chorus of boos. It’s not a bad move, as it at least unites the next Chris Wilcox with the current Chris Wilcox for at least one week. But it’s roundly derided anyway. After about 40 seconds of booing, the director cuts to a shot of a small band of renegade Knicks fans cheering wildly, which is good fundamental directing. Jay Bilas is now 8 for 8, by the way.
01.21: Hill’s draft capsule implores him to improve at “finishing strong”. Giggidy. (Go on, Mark Jones. Say it.)
01.22: In his interview, Hill says “I’ll do what I gotta do” and “I’ll just play basketball” in back to back sentences. The next person to say something interesting in their post-draft interviews wins a bun. Don’t you know that millions of people around the globe are judging you for the first time at that moment? Because we are. So give us a reason to remember you. Wacky ties will suffice.
01.23: Bilas cuts down Hill with the scathing pseudo-compliment that he “must learn how to play”. Zing. The eighth pick in the draft must learn how to play, everybody. Charge your glasses.
01.23: Just looked it up, and apparently Jordan Hill is NOT a station on the Bakerloo Line, like I first thought. Nor was it an Australian teen soap opera. Sorry about that.
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That’ll do for now. The rest will come when I wake up.
11 Comments about Sham’s unnecessarily long 2009 draft diary, part 1
Michael Sullivan27 June, 2009, 7:21 am
I think the photo at 0108 was worth reading the entire article. Since Mark Jackson is being heavily touted as the next coach of the T-Wolves, it was fun watching the rest of the draft after the Rubio/Flynn debacle.
Sham27 June, 2009, 7:25 am
This time last night, ismichaeljacksonalive.com consisted solely of the word "NO". You'll have to just trust me that it was funnier then.
your favourite sun27 June, 2009, 7:38 am
ESPN also listed Kevin Love as backing up Craig Smith. Clearly they know nothing.
They also listed Bruce Bowen as Milwaukee's starting small forward and I thought to myself "wow, I hope not." But then I realized, considering it's the Bucks, and it's Scott Skiles, that anything's possible.
Morten Stig Jensen27 June, 2009, 9:31 am
Milwaukee better start Luc Mbah A Moute. If not for his name, then defensive stability and rebounding.
