I know that I may be in the minority on this, but I much rather watch the NBA Draft instead of the NFL Draft. I can remember NBA Drafts much, much, much better than the NFL ones.
NBATV is doing their best to remind me of that as they replay pretty much every draft from 1981 to 2008. There was the awesome 1984 draft of Hakeem, Jordan, Perkins, Barkley and Stockton. There was the sad 1986 draft where Rick Barry told Len Bias during an interview "you'll have plenty of time" for his hobbies. Bias, of course, died two days later of a drug overdose.
There was the 1988 draft which was the first in Charlotte Hornets history. It was exciting to see the city that I was living in having a team and Rex Chapman was the first player. I remember the 1991 draft because I spent most of the time in Driver's Ed discussing the virtues of the Hornets drafting Dikembe Mutombo. 1995, 1996 and 2003 were also great drafts.
One thing that got me was USA's coverage of the draft in the early 1980s. St. John's head coach Lou Carnesecca was the lone analyst for the draft. I was amazed that a college coach (who at the time helmed one of the top programs in the country) had a pulse on what NBA teams were doing. I also found it refreshing that Carnesecca didn't poo-poo any picks and instead offered insight into why teams may have selected the guy the did. Nowadays, draft analysts want to talk about what these teams should have done instead.
Also, those early drafts in the Felt Forum looked like a crappy telethon. There were fans seated in the arena, but the "draft floor" looked like some rec center was holding a bake sale. It also seemed informal. From Larry O'Brien's chatting to David Stern's porn-stache, the commishes just gave the news with a simple "the Clippers pick Terry Cummings, DePaul". Nowadays, Stern gets up with his smile and says "with the No. 1 pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, the Los Angeles Clippers select ... (pause) ... Blake Griffin, Oklahoma."
But the best part are the guys getting drafted. The hindsight involved. Of course everyone in Portland when Sam Bowie was taken ahead of Michael Jordan, but it didn't seem like that stupid of a move then. However, it is the little interviews with these guys that are the best. Seeing and hearing these cats as young adults with their careers in front of them. From Charles Barkley admitting that he couldn't play defense to Chuck Person's tuxedo because he just married his sweetheart, it was cool to see these guys again.
No comments:
Post a Comment