What a night this shall be? If you are a Red Sox fan, (apparently there are 41,000 more than we though in DC) tonight is going to be an extremely interesting night. You have John Smoltz pitching his first game in the Major's for a team other than the Braves and making his first start in over a year. One of the all-time, ultimate gamers in we've seen in baseball for quite sometime. Also tonight you have Aaron Jackson's night of nights in the NBA Draft.
All that we have heard about this draft is that it isn't very good, besides Blake Griffin. There are a lot of overrated players in this draft and that there will be a lot of busts. I agree with some of that, but not all of it. I think that this is going to be a draft where the rich get richer and the poor get, well you know. I wouldn't want a top 10 pick in this draft really, there are a few picks I like such as Flynn and Rubio, but besides that I like the guys in the teens and 20 much better. I think Dejuan Blair is going to be an absolute monster. I talked with my buddy Duane this morning and I said I thought he was going to be a steal in this draft somewhere around the mid-teens. Duane made the argument that he wouldn't be that good because he was undersized and would have to be a Charles Barkley type. That's when it hit me, Dejuan Blair has as good of a shot as anybody of becoming the next Sir Charles. He has athletic, aggressive and pounds the glass like nobody we've seen coming out of high school or college since the Round Mound of Rebound came out of Auburn.
The other reason that this draft is going to be so entertaining is that I see a lot of trades going down tonight. There have been rumors swirling there are a lot of teams that want to move up to take particular players that they have fallen in love with. The problem is though, that in a historical sense this will be remembered as a hit or miss draft. Teams will move up on guys that they want and if that guy doesn't work out, (especially in the top 10 picks) then it could really set that team back for a few years and assure them that they will be in the lottery for many years to come.
The Shaq trade has gone down which assures us of a couple things:
1. We now have the love triangle of the proportions of Pitt-Jolie-Aniston proportions, now that Shaq has divorced Kobe, had his successful fling with Dwyane Wade and now is snuggled up with Lebron James. This is like Pitt leaving Jolie and shacking up with Jessica Alba and then making having their movie nominated for best picture against something about orphans starring Angelina Jolie. This will be more talked about than the South Carolina Governor who walked around the woods and didn't know why. This will be just under Clinton-Lewinsky in terms of media run.
2. Is Lebron taking the monkey that Kobe just shrugged off his back and putting it onto himself?
It sure looks like it, because if the Cavs win the championship next season, Lebron will then have the "You only won when you had Shaq" stigma attached to him. Ask Kobe, that doesn't wash off so quickly. On a side note, Dwyane Wade has never had this subject broached to him before. Maybe we just need to give it time? On second thought that was a horrible finals and nobody really thinks about it anymore, since it's pretty much been blown out of the water by the last two NBA champions.
3. Shaq might get the chance to battle Dwight Howard in the playoffs next year setting off the chain reaction of story lines involving him getting SVG fired from Miami the year they won the title and their verbal sparring that went on this season. As well as the contrived battle for which center is really nicknamed Superman.
The bad thing about all of this?
I'm an assistant coach on an American Legion team and there is a game tonight at 7. So I will pretty much miss all of Smoltz's start and will get to the draft right about the 20's, where all the interesting trades have happened and Jay Bilas is less punchy.
So in a nutshell, I'm going to miss everything.
Sterling Pingree
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