The NBA Pre-Draft Camp opened in Orlando last night with the three Tar Heels, Ty Lawson, Danny Green and Wayne Ellington participating in scrimmages and today beginning at 9 AM is, according to Draft Express, "when the camp really starts." Meanwhile, Greg Barnes of Inside Carolina interviewed all three players. Nothing earth shattering in what Lawson and Ellington have to say. It is your standard set of quotes you get from guys going through the draft process. Danny Green on the other hand continues to be loquacious at every opportunity.
So is being drafted in the first round the cutoff for you?
“Right now with me, yes. I mean, if I’m going to be projected to go in the second round, then it’s probably going to be in my best interests to go back to school. That’s what Coach [Williams] is saying. Coach doesn’t want me to go unless I’m guaranteed a contract.Why weren’t you involved in the initial NBA discussion with Tyler [Hansbrough], Wayne and Ty?
“Coach… I guess he didn’t think I had it in my mind then, so he didn’t think that I was going to even think about going or trying to ‘test the waters,’ so he didn’t include me in that, I guess. I don’t know.”Had you talked with him about it?
“You’d have to talk to him. I mean, I called him and talked to him about it, but when it came down to it, it was the ‘Big Three.’ So they had their own meeting, and he thought I wasn’t thinking about doing it. But I called him and told him about doing it, but he didn’t think it was for my best interests… He gave me his advice, but I wanted to do it anyway. I wanted to see how good I could do. My family’s not the richest in the world – not the poorest – but whatever I can do to help my family and whatever’s best for my situation, I’m going to do. I thought it was best to try and see what I could do this year.”
Can I just say, I hate getting into another: "Let's Take a Look at What Danny Said" post. However the other two are not really saying anything and that is the proper course of action in my mind. Green on the other hand cannot stop talking about his situation. Most of that is his personality. If you go back a look at postgame comments from the season two players usually had the most to say: Green and Marcus Ginyard. You tended to hear a lot from Tyler Hansbrough but he was also a NPOY so that goes with the territory. Green and Ginyard are simply put very vocal guys. Lawson and Ellington tend to give short answers. In this case Green is just being Green. The questions is should he be so forthright about everything? I say no, but then again I tend to be reserved individual.
The money quotes here are the final two which pretty much confirms what I suspected last month. I speculated here that it was clear Green wanted to test the NBA Draft but Roy did not think he was ready. Now before we totally bash Green here for being a little whiny about the whole thing and giving us the "boo-hoo coach loves them more than he does me" routine it should be noted that Roy could have defused this from the start by going along with Green's wishes. Now I know this is only one side of the story and Roy would undoubtedly have a different take on it but for the moment let's go with what is on the record. Green calls Roy and says he wants in on the action, Roy tells him he does not think it is a good idea because Roy does not care for the "testing the waters" business. In his mind you throw your name into the draft if and only if you have a legit shot at being drafted according to the available information at decision time. That was not the case for Green then and so Roy advised him it was not in his interests to do it and thought that was the end of it. In hindsight, not the best move on Roy's part who is known to be stubborn about certain traditional ways.
All that being said, I really think Danny Green needs to shut the heck up and play basketball. This is back stabbing whiny poppycock from someone who does not know when he should stop running his mouth. Yes, you disagreed with your college coach about a decision to enter the draft process. Someone call Ripley because obviously this has never happened before in the history of college basketball. I think the signs have been fairly clear that there was an obvious disagreement between Roy and Green, but one thing I know is if Green really harbors returning to school as an option then I cannot imagine what he said in this interview is at all helpful. He basically calls Roy out publically for how his draft aspirations were handled and at the same time pouts because the Big Three were given full attention and he was not.
Whether he has a legitimate gripe or not I think it is bad form to talk about at the freaking draft camp. You can talk about what steps you should take to improve your stock, how excited you are about being there and a passing mention about how you disagreed with Roy but if it does not work out you look forward to going back and playing for him would have been fine. This crap here I can do without and all things considered if he does stay in the draft I am not sure I will really care. Yes, I want UNC to win a national title but at the same time I enjoy watching a team with players who want to be there and play with all the heart to accomplish team goals not individual glory for the next level.
So, if Green wants to go pro, then be my guest. If he wants to come back to Chapel Hill then do me and the rest of Tar Heel Nation a favor: Put a freaking sock in your mouth and play ball. After all this whining, if you come back and end up a starter you darn well better be freaking 1st team All-ACC for all the hyping you and your father have done in the past month. Otherwise you will look like one of the bigger fools in UNC basketball history.