NEW YORK – So after the NBA Draft I ended up with some of my colleagues at Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club, the official host of the draft afterparty.
There was a mad scene out front with a ton of people trying to get in, but our boy Tommy Dee of The Knicks Blog arranged for a few of us to get past the barricades.
I wanted to go to see what it was all about, and, let’s face it, how often do you get a chance to do something like that?
Once inside, it was quite a spectacle. The bass was so loud you could barely hear the person next to you talk.
There were a ton of young ladies dressed up for a night on the town and trying to catch a look at the newest multi-millionaires. One chick had a (fake?) white fur around her neck. Now is that really necessary in late June?…I saw former Knicks star John Starks...James Harden out of Arizona State, the No. 3 overall pick by Oklahoma City, was in the house but nobody seemed to recognize him…Tyreke Evans, who went at No. 4 to Sacramento, arrived looking sharp in a suit and drew a crowd….Knicks pick Jordan Hill was not in the house (at least when I was there), but we hear he’ll be at CitiField for tonight’s Yankees-Mets interleague game.
I wish these guys luck, but I can see how being a young multi-millionaire with the world at your fingertips can present various troubles. You need to have a good head on your shoulders and some good people looking out for your back.
bball purist / June 26, 2009
Yes, Zags, someone better look out for Tyreke’s, Hardens, and Hill’s back because the odds are in favor (60%+) of one of them being bankrupt by the time they’ve retired out of the league for 5+ years. Who will it be? Will it be 2 of them?
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Terrapins92 / June 26, 2009
Hate to say it but Jay-Z is an uber-impressario who is into some crazy dark occult crap. It doesn’t exactly say great things about the league that their party was held there.
I have a very hard time even caring about the NBA anymore. It just seems to ooze a manipulated corporate/industrial entertainment-production vibe. Guess I’ll just stick to being interested in the college game. (Yeah, yeah, I know. It isn’t exactly pure as the driven snow either.)
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Big Ben / June 26, 2009
Gotta go with Tyreke if you’re choosing between just those 3. Harden and Hill both have reputations of being pretty smart guys.
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bball purist / June 26, 2009
tarps92,
At least we have a guy playing one more year at a college he loves for a HOF coach he loves playing for…
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CrAZy Cat / June 26, 2009
AZ,
For the record, the PAC-10 also got 9 players in the NBA draft, so, let’s do a quick comparison between the 2 conferences.
PAC-10 Big East
Top-10 picks: 3 2
1st Rnd picks: 6 4
Total picks: 9 9
Highest pick: 3rd 2nd
Lowest pick: 44th 52nd
Tot. Conf Schls: 5 5
Max. picks per Schl: 2 (4 schls) 2 (4 schls)
Total Schls in Conf: 10 16
So, as you can see, while the Big East may have been “shining” last night, the PAC-10 was shining even brighter. Same # of players from a smaller conference (# of teams) whom on average were drafted higher by NBA teams.
I know the Big East (and ACC) gets all the East Coast accolades, deserving or not, while the PAC-10 and West Coast gets largely overlooked. Just want to open the eyes of some East Coast readers.
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Terrapins92 / June 26, 2009
Definitely. Most definitely.
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Big Ben / June 27, 2009
Both the Big 10 and Big 12 have been better basketball conferences as of late (as well as the BE and ACC). I do agree that the Pac 10 gets ignored a lot because of their time zone and terrible TV deal, but draft picks aren’t a good indicator of conference power.
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