Intramural scrub declares for NBA Draft

	The Walk-On Dave Isaacs is a Junior at Univ. of California at Santa Cruz. His Golden State Warriors blog can be found here.
	The file on David Isaacs is he makes up for his inexperience with heart. SI/David Bergman

By David Isaacs

Five years ago, I was a scrawny kid heaving the ball at the hoop with a two-hand set shot. Today, I'm a junior at the University of California at Santa Cruz, home of the Banana Slug. I stand 5-foot-6, have bulked up to 135 pounds and feature a sweet left-handed jump shot.

My official basketball career is very short. I played throughout high school -- at lunchtime, but there aren't any statistics. I played in an intramural league at college, but no stats were kept for that, either. My guess is I averaged about five points and three assists in 25 minutes per game.

The day I realized I was going to declare for the NBA Draft was like any other. I had finished playing a series of pickup games at the gym on campus, and the competition was tough as always. I matched up against a shooting guard, who was about 5-10, 180. This guy tried to pop some outside shots, but couldn't do it with my hand in his grill. He tried to post me up, but couldn't back me down. After three consecutive wins, it dawned on me: I was ready for the show.

I was ready to put in the hard work (workouts, combines, etc.), but had no clue about how or where to start. My first step was to e-mail the NBA Players Association. I figured they'd be receptive to a potential future member. Instead, they shunned me. So I called the NBA headquarters in New York. No one took my call.

I hired an agent -- John Domantay. You'd think it'd be difficult to find a guy willing to help out an unknown 5-6 guard, but Domantay was up to the task. He said that in order to get the form to declare, I had to prove that I went to UCSC and played basketball. I read through the Collective Bargaining Agreement many times, searching for a loophole. Eventually, Article X gave me the only ammo I could arm myself with:

Article X, Section 1(b): A player shall be eligible for selection in the first NBA Draft with respect to which he has satisfied all applicable requirements of Section 1(b)(i) below and one of the requirements of Section 1(b)(ii) below:

1(b)(i): The player (A) is or will be at least 19 years of age during the calendar year in which the Draft is held, and (B) with respect to a player who is not an international player (defined below), at least one (1) NBA Season has elapsed since the player's graduation from high school.
...
1(b)(ii)(F): The player has expressed his desire to be selected in the Draft in a writing received by the NBA at least sixty (60) days prior to such Draft (an "Early Entry" player).

I was convinced that this was enough. Domantay had given me the number of a contact at the NBA -- Ned in the Operations Department. It was late at night when I called, so left a message for Ned on his voicemail. I woke up the next morning and imagined Ned had sat down at his desk, laughed at my pathetic voicemail and gleefully deleted it.