I am sitting in a hotel room watching the 2005 NBA draft. Immediately I am happy to see that Atlanta did not get the opportunity to pick Bogut. I am a Hawks fan. Yes, I said the Hawks. Obviously pro basketball hasn’t been played in Hotlanta in almost a decade, so I have focused my cheering efforts for the Spurs (I was happy to see Duncan get a third championship since hes a low key guy that plain gets the job done.). Anyway, I digress. Why am I happy to to see the Bucks and not the Hawks get Bogut? Because I have suffered through too many slow lumbering big man draft picks by the Hawks. We are talking about guys like Koncak, Keefe, Rasmusean, and Volkoff (I realize that some of these guys were probably obtained via trades and not picks). So, instead of Bogut, who could turn out to be either the next Zydrunas Ilgauskas or the next Dwayne Shintzius (not really a big difference), they got Marvin Williams. Marvin is a can’t miss small forward who averaged 11 and 7 for the star packed NCAA champion Tarheels while coming off the pine. I am excited about this guy. He reminds me of the last great small forward to play for the Hawks - Danning Manning. He’s fluid, quick, and appears to have a good head on his shoulders - and he doesn’t have that pesky knee problem Danny was plagued with throughout his career. My only fear is that he’s a guy who has been a winner his whole life and as of this evening is a member of the worst franchise in professional basketball, maybe the worst franchise in sports.
Other draft notes:
1) Portland drafted the high schooler Martell Webster. I’m sure his parnets can’t wait for those good guys in Portland to start mentoring their son. I heard Damon Stoundamire has already hooked up Martell with a customized whizinator.
2) The Raptors picked Charles Villanueva. Everyone seemed to be puzzled by this pick. Not me. It is painfully obvious that Toronto wants to challenge Atlanta for the worst franchise in pro basketball.
3) Julius Hodge selected at number 20 by the Nuggets. Man, Denver just got even better. I didn’t know much about this guy before this year, but a coworker made me watch him play a couple of times. Hes the real deal, a pure freakin scorer. He reminds me of Lamar Odom prior to moving to the blocks. He can handle the ball, score in the lane, and hes got swagger. The Nuggets got some value with this pick and Julius, still somewhat of a raw talent, will only get better under Karl.
4) European parents are trigger happy with the letter K. It appeared that every European drafted had at least two K’s in their name.
5) R.C. Bufford is one of the 4400. I honestly feel asleep watching the dude get interviewed for five minutes. Bueller, Bueller, Bueller?
6) It was kind of uncomfortable watching the first round. The ESPN analyst didn’t hold back any punches when commenting on what they considered bad picks, all while the guy was not more than 20 feet away. “I’m right here dude!, I can hear you!”
7) After Chris Paul was drafted, Julius Hodge punched him in the package during his photo op. with David Stern (not true, but no one would have blamed Hodge if he woulda done it).
Garcia slips to Sac town. This guys peaks out in both skill and desire. How he slipped to 23 I will never know.
Oh well. I am going to bed. We just got Salim - another good pick. Again, we probably woulda picked David Lee but the NY saved us just in the Knick of time. By the way, when the NY pick was announced it looked like someone punched Spike Lee in the package - Julius Hodge maybe?
