Yeah, I know I really do not care that much about the NBA. The held the NBA Draft tonight and because of the 19 year old age limit the best high schoolers will be enrolled at a college near you next season leaving one of the weakest drafts in recent memory.
On the UNC side David Noel was taken 39th by the Milwaukee Bucks. Congratulations to Noel who is a great athlete and exceptionally hard worker. He was the glue last season and gave a group of young players the lift they needed to beat all the predictions. J.J. Redick was taken #11 by Orlando and Shelden Williams was apparently told two weeks ago that Atlanta was taking him despite their need for a point guard. The ESPN talking(or shouting in the case of Stephen A Smith) heads lauded Williams' defense and he was named defensive player of the year twice. I also happen to believe that those awards were based on shot blocking and the fact he played at Duke. His one on one defense was horrible. I lost count of the number of decent to exceptional centers who racked Williams up for major points which included Sean May doing it twice for over 20 points and 20 rebounds in 2005. And who can forget that faithful March 4, 2006 at Cameron Indoor Stadium:
Here's hoping Shelden plays better defense in the NBA than he did on Tyler Hansbrough that night.
NBA Draft talk also afford us the opportunity to poke fun at Isiah Thomas who still is being permitted to show up and run the New York Knicks on a daily basis only now he is the coach and has a one year clock to fix the mess he has made there. It is not happening so Knick ownership should fire him now like they did Larry Brown(who had no business being there, had an impossible roster to work with, and may be past his prime.) Over at ESPN.com Patrick Hruby and Kurt Snibbe have put together some funny photoshops linking Thomas with some disastarous moments throughout history. I thought this one was particularly humorous for obvious reasons:
And no as a Tar Heel fan I still hold Thomas in utmost contempt for being on the 1981 Indiana team which beat UNC in the National Championship game...and for kissing Magic Johnson on the cheek before one of the NBA Finals in the late 1980's.