The Nightlife

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While I write this from my apartment for the morning rotation of SI.com, I assume there are bigger and better things happening north of me on West 25th Street. Deron Williams told me his afterparty was at the Jay-Z owned 40/40 Club, the same place where NYC point-guard Sebastian Telfair opted to watch the draft -- rather than risk a disappointment at MSG -- in 2004. And Deron wasn't the only one headed in that direction.

As the late-lottery players were cycling through their TV interviews, the new Knick Channing Frye crossed paths with the new Timberwolf Rashad McCants and this brief-but-to-the-point exchange ensued:

Frye: "Where you going tonight? 40/40?"
McCants: "Yessir."

Nightlife FAQ

An excerpt from the Frequently Asked Questions section of the 40/40 Club's Web site:

Q: Will I see celebrities at The 40/40 Club?

A: The 40/40 Club is home to various A-list celebrities. On any given day, the chances of bumping into a super star are very high.

A suggested Q&A to add to a Frequently Asked Questions section on the draft, if it were to exist:

Q: Will I see celebrities at the 2005 draft?

A: Just Spike Lee in a Knickerbockers tee. Nobody else.

Roy Is Forced To Choose

The one, mildly redeeming upside to having the college team you coach get completely ravaged by the NBA Draft to the tune of four top-14 picks ... is that you get a stack of free hats. By the time Sean May was snatched up by the Bobcats at No. 13, North Carolina head coach Roy Williams had four caps in his hands -- two orange Charlotte chapeaus (May and Raymond Felton), a red Hawks headgear (for Marvin Williams) and a blue T'wolves topper (for McCants). You also earn the honor of being the only college coach in attendance to conduct a joint press conference with a player, as Roy did with May. Fellow ACC sideline-stalkers Skip Prosser (in the Green Room at Chris Paul's table) and Herb Sendek (near Hodge in the stands) were present but managed to keep much lower profiles.

While Roy could collect four hats, however, he could only sit at one Green Room table -- Marvin Williams'. But let it be clear that the Roy wasn't playing favorites. "Marvin had the least people at his table -- everyone else's tables were full," Felton explained. "It's a family, no matter what. Coach hugged everyone."

The Hidden Gem From Le Havre?

Who is this strange Frenchman with David Stern? Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images

Until Tuesday I only knew Le Havre, France, as a place I ended up while getting lost road-tripping in Normandy this April, accidentally driving across its bridge, which had a 5 euro toll, and then having to go back across it and pay the toll again because I was an American tourist whose French wasn't good enough to explain my costly navigational error. It was a magnificent bridge, a real modern architectural marvel, but I couldn't appreciate it properly because I was so pissed about losing the 10 euros.

Anyway. Le Havre made a return into my consciousness on draft night, when the Spurs called the name, "Ian Mahinmi, STB Le Havre (France)" at No. 28 in the first round. Because of this pick's obscurity and San Antonio's esteemed reputation for identifying international talent, Mahinmi was a draftee worth investigating. Consider that:

• It appeared the draft organizers did not have a nameplate prepared for Mahinmi on the board at MSG, as it took an extended period of time (at least five minutes, while the other picks appeared instantaneously) for "I. MAHINMI" to slide into the Spurs' slot.
• Mahinmi had no page in the NBA's draft media guide or on its draft Web site.
• He did not appear on a single mock draft I read -- on any Web site -- until SI.com's Ian Thomsen made an 11th-hour update Tuesday. 

So I tracked down Mahinmi outside of MSG's interview rooms -- unlike many of the other prospects he was sans entourage, with no agent (his rep, Bouna Ndiaye, was with another other client, Johan Petro), no hangers-on and no translator. His mother, he said, was supposed to come to NYC but "had a little problem in France with her passport." He spoke decent English -- much better than my French -- and we talked for a few minutes. I spared him the bridge-toll story (but you, the readers, were not as lucky).

Mahinmi was probably the least surprised person in the building by the pick -- he made the trip to New York from France because "the Spurs talked with his agent and he had word that really made him confident" he would be selected. He said the deal he signed with Le Havre this season, where he averaged 6.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in 16.8 minutes per game, was his first pro contract after playing on the French junior team.

"I'm supposed to stay in France for one or two more years before I'm ready to play [in the NBA]," Mahinmi said. "But I'm happy to play on a team [the Spurs] that will feel familiar with some European players. With Tony Parker, I can speak French, so it will be really good."

Mahinmi said he was pretty sure other NBA teams had watched him play, "but I can't recall who" -- perhaps an indication that the Spurs grabbed a guy in the first round who might otherwise have been undrafted. It'll probably take until 2009 to find out if this nearly anonymous Frenchman is San Antonio's latest steal, but the names Manu Ginobili, Parker and Beno Udrih (and soon, Luis Scola) have earned the Spurs the right to be trusted.

The Awards

Raymond Felton: one happy man. Nathaniel S. Butler/Getty Images

... because it's not a draft without superlatives.

The Most Miserable Expression ... did not belong to Hakim Warrick, who was the last man in the Green Room and not pleased about it. The winner here is Martynas Andriuskevicius, the 7-2 Lithuanian center who was not in the Green Room but had a seat in the front row of the stands on an aisle behind the press tables. At 10:30 p.m. as the final pick in the first round was announced -- Florida's David Lee, to the Knicks -- Andriuskevicius rested his head on his right hand and looked completely dejected. A foreign prospect who at one point intrigued enough NBA teams to be considered a lottery pick in a number of mock drafts, he was now stuck in the seats as the bulk of the crowd -- families of already-chosen players, fans, etc. -- was pouring out around him. He would have to wait until Orlando picked at No. 44 to finally hear his name, and was later dealt to the Cavaliers.

The Man Who Landed in The Best-Possible Situation ... Felton. He was picked at No. 5, much higher than projected. He'll be playing for Charlotte, where he can start immediately and be in an environment without high expectations. He'll be three hours by car from his hometown of Latta, S.C., and two-and-a-half from his alma mater, UNC. And if he needs any more support during his transition to NBA life, his former teammate Sean May will be right by his side. Ray got hooked up.

The Biggest Understatement ... Hodge, who said, when describing his physique, "I don't have a huge frame like a Ben Wallace."

The Most Intriguing Second-Round Pick (to me, at least) ... was made by the L.A. Lakers at No. 39: Florida State's Von Wafer. The former 'Nole should've waited until the '06 draft to turn pro, and generated very little buzz in '05 -- he wasn't even invited to the Chicago camp -- but has the potential to become a prolific scorer. He'll have to light up the D-League before he does it on the big stage, though.

And One Last Thing

The biggest draft "steal" is not a prospect but rather an item: This shirt.

That's right, for a starting bid of $25,000 on eBay, you can attempt to win a framed t-shirt with an iron-on of Marvin Williams as a Bremerton (Wash.) High School senior, autographed by Marvin himself. It's shocking there are no offers with just three days remaining in the auction. On the Web page the seller claims that the shirt's "value will only increase as Marvin is drafted and he excels in the NBA and he becomes a fan favorite with his humble, wonderful personality."

This got me to thinking. What Marvin Williams related item would actually be worth 25K? Perhaps a splice of his DNA, so someone could clone little Marvin Williamses, raise them and enter them in the 2024 NBA Draft? Still, that would be dependent on what calling a prospect "The Next Marvin Williams" will mean 19 years down the road. The Hawks are praying that it'll be a label with plenty of cachet.