7:01 p.m. - We are underway from the WAMU (no, I don’t know what that means) Theatre at Madison Square Garden. A few notes while the idiotic video montage runs….
1. The Sunday News’ Eric Stark will call in from time to time from the Sixers’ draft party at the Wachovia Center. Starkie reported a while ago that as he was sitting there, a guy walked by on stilts. A while later, Manute Bol walked by, and Manute was taller than the guy on stilts.
2. We also have a correspondent at Madison Square Garden who we’re calling Press-Box Wag because we think that sounds cool. Everyone else is, of course, encouraged to participate at mgross@lnpnews.com, or by attaching a comment to the bottom of this post.
3. This should be the most interesting draft at least since 2003, when Lebron James and Dwayne Wade signed in. Greg Oden and Kevin Durant, who will be the first two picks, look like future superstars. Beyond those two there are 8-9 long, athletic bodies with varying strengths and weaknesses, a couple point guards, endless monster trade rumors, and some GMs who have seemed clueless in the past with an opportunity to make epic messes.
(I forgot: there’s a possibility of an international incident if the Milwaukee Bucks, at No. 6, take Chinese 7-footer Yi Jianlian. This dude really, really doesn’t want to go to Milwaukee, for some reason.)
7:19 - Oden is interviewed with high school and college teammate Mike Conley, who could be picked as high as third. Every time I see these guys I can’t get over the fact that just like 16 months ago, they were playing high school basketball. On the same team.
7:32 - Commish David Stern invites us to the home of “the Knicks and the Liberty.” It’s true, commish- you think Da Gahden, you think New York Liberty. Portland on the clock. We see the Blazers war room erupt in applause and congrats, like they’re at mission control and Zack Randolph just landed on the moon or something.
7:35 - If they’ve already celebrated the pick, why are they still on the clock? Everything in life, except your actual life, takes too long
7:36 - It’s Oden. Durant does the Oscar-nominee smile. Oden doesn’t dwarf Stern quite as much as I expected- the commish usually looks like a smurf in these grip-and-grins.
One weird thing about Oden/Durant, which has been debated more than less filling/tastes great: Portland has a post player, Randolph, but needs a small forward. Seattle has some scorers, runners and jumpers but plays no defense and has no post presence. In other words, if they go utterly by need, Portland takes Durant and Seattle Oden.
7:42 - Seattle takes Durant. Stu Scott asks Durant what he’d think about a guy who (famously) can’t bench 185, and Durant doesn’t hesitate: “Nothing. If a guy can play basketball, he can play basketball.” Thank you.
7:48 - First moment of intrigue- Atlanta at three, traditionally dumb, with a lot of needs and options…. they take the safe pick- Florida PF Al Horford. This means a trade possibility fed to Starkie by former Warwick HS coach Brian Brewer at the Wachovia, the Sixers’ Andre Miller to the Hawks for the No. 3, isn’t gonna happen.
ESPN’s Mark Jackson rips the Hawks, saying with some justification that Horford is redundant for them. Starkie reports a few Sixers fans actually applauded the pick. I don’t know what that means.
At the Wachovia, Mark Zumoff asks former Sixers’ goof Clarence Weatherspoon what it was like to be compared to Charles Barkley. Later, he’ll ask Herman’s Hermits what it was like to be compared to the Beatles…
7:52 - Mike Conley to Memphis. Maybe the Hawks can get Acie Law at No. 11.
7:57 - Jeff Green to the Celtics, although apparently as part of a trade with Seattle involving Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak. This means the Celtics gave up the No. 5 and two decent perimeter players for a 32-year old shooter who’ll fight Paul Pierce for the ball. Put ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons and all New England on suicide watch.
Yeah, I had to look up the spelling of Szczerbiak.
8:03 - The Chinese guy is going to Milwaukee. Convene the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The good news is this is one of the few important picks in this draft that nobody in America has seen play.
Fran Frischilla reports Yi has been to Pete Newell’s Big Man Camp. So has Alton Lister.
Yi has spent the last month in L.A., where he’s attended parties and movie premieres. Yeah, he’s ready for Milwaukee.
8:11 Minnesota takes Corey Brewer, whom I really like. Kevin NcHale did good.
Starkie talked to ex-Sixer Clint Richardson, who lives in Seattle and has seen a lot of Washington 7-footer Spencer Hawes, supposedly a possible Sixers’ pick at No. 12. Richardson thinks Hawes should have stayed in school.
8:18 Michael Jordan makes the Tar Heel fraternity pick, Brandan Wright, at No. 8. Wright is very talented, 6-10, skilled, but seems very immature. For what it’s worth, when he worked out for some individual teams he refused to compete with other players, leading to the alarming sight of Joakim Noah, for example, yelling and diving on the floor at one end of the court, and Wright dribbling around cones at the other end.
The Chicago Bulls, the first team to pick that has a chance to impact next year’s playoffs, are next.
8:25 Joakim Noah to the Bulls. He’s wearing a seersucker suit with a giant bowtie, David Letterman’s tooth-gap, Cher’s hairdo from the 1980s, and now a baseball cap. The fashion statement of the night has been made.
Noah has some holes and doesn’t fill a particular need for the Bulls, but he seems like a can’t-go-wrong pick for a good team. Living in Chicago should work for him, too.
8:34 Sacramento takes Hawes, to applause in Philly.
8:39 Acie Law to the Hawks. Billy Knight gets Horford and a legit point guard. Nice. Seriously.
Press Box Wag chimes in from the interview room in New York, where a guy from the Queens Chronicle (which I’ve never heard of) is the designated asker of bizarre, eye-rolling questions.
QC to Greg Oden: “Have you ever met Oregon’s most famous resident, Phil Knight?”
To Corey Brewer: “Minnesota is home to Prince, Target and cold winters. Have you thought about having to deal with the cold?”
Brewer to QC: “I guess I’ll have to get a big jacket.”
QC to Spencer Hawes: “Sacramento is home to governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Are you looking forward to meeting him, and do you have any thoughts on the upcoming presidential election?”
In response, Hawes said something about having watched “Pumping Iron” with his buddies the other day. How would you have answered that?
8:46 Thaddeus Young of Ga. Tech to the Sixers. He’s a shooter, not a rebounder, and very, very young. A head-scratcher. If you’re not taking Florida State forward Al Thornton, you’ve got to go for a big power guy. Don’t you? Guess not.
Starkie reports there’s a mass exodus at the Wachovia, even though the Sixers have two more picks. Also, there was a moment in the “war room” when Larry Brown had his hand on Billy King’s back and appeared to be operating him like a puppetmaster. Everyone enjoyed a good laugh…
8:53 Julian Wright to New Orleans. Nothing to add.
8:58 The Clippers take Thornton with the last lottery pick. Best player available, and he makes sense for the Clips, whose gain, I fear, is the Sixers’ loss. On the other hand, Press Box Wag points out that the Clips now have three small forwards, Tim Thomas, Corey Maggette and Thornton.
Big picture: One wonders if everybody is trying to become the Phoenix Suns, or even the Golden State Warriors. Seattle seems to be heading in that direction, and even the Sixers’ pick - Young is a runner and shooter - can maybe be understood in that context.
Nos. 15-19 - guard Rodney Stuckey (E. Washington) to Detroit, guard Nick Young (USC) to Washington, big Sean Williams (B.C.) to the Nets, Italian league guard Marco Belinelli to Golden State, and point Javoris Crittenten (Ga. Tech) to the Lakers.
No huge news here. Stuckey is Chauncey Billups insurance, since Billups has opted out of his contract. Williams has issues, but he can definitely play for the Nets, who might have the worst front line for a playoff team ever.
9:41 With the 21st pick, the Sixers take Ohio State head case Daequan Cook to send him, cash and a 2009 second-rounder to Miami for Jason Smith, a big guy from Colorado State the Heat had chosen with the 20th pick. Starkie is not pleased: “Remind me not to come to this thing next year.”
The Sixers still have another pick, and there are maybe 50 people left at the Wachovia.
10:37 - The Sixers take Petteri Koponen, a 6-4 guard from Finland. Mike Tirico says he’s 19, but the graphic says he’s 21. Kind of an important difference there, since he’ll almost certainly stay overseas next year.
Starkie checks in one last time, after a conference call with Thaddeus Young….
What about you impressed the Sixers?
“Just my drive and how hard I work. I have the ability to take a player inside or out.”
“Last year was the first time I played on the perimeter.” (Duh. You’re 6-8, and before last year you were in high school.)
Young worked out for the Sixers with Jason Smith.
“He can play the five, four or three. He runs the floor and has great leaping ability. That was a good pick.”
Why will the fans like you?
“I’m a great guy with great character, and I’m a people person.”
The evening is wearing down, and this is where TNT’s coverage, with Charles, Kenny and Co., is really missed. Stephen A., hollering more as the night wears on, seems to be gaining energy. Press Box Wag suggests he’s got an IV under the desk…. E-mail consensus from readers is mild disappointment with your Sixers. It seems they really tried to move up, probably to Milwaukee at six, but the Bucks just decided to not outsmart themselves and simply take the player they liked… Five of the top 10 picks played in the NCAA final- how many of them would have gone straight to to the league under the previous rules?…Something else PBW has pointed out and I’ve since noticed: ESPN is making a lot of mistakes with its graphics. They have the Sixers’ Joe Smith as a starter, Willie Green as a forward, the Lakers’ Jordan Farmar as a shooting guard, etc… Isiah did a nice job (did I say that?) getting Zack Randolph, expendable by Portland because of Oden, for redundant Steve Francis and Channing Frye…
The first round is over. Dick Vitale is flipping out about air time and throwing papers around his den in Florida…. We’re tired, but it’s a good kind of tired.
So what have we learned? The big winners of the night, off the top of my head, seem like Seattle, Portland and Atlanta. Losers? Celtics, Lakers and Sixers. Which a guess means the 80s were a long, long time ago…
Thanks to our intrepid correspondents and everyone who checked in. Tomorrow, Floyd Landis at Barnes & Noble. Peace out…..
