NBA Draft Awards

By Ty Hildenbrandt

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Brandon Jennings casually played off his fashionably late arrival. AP

If you really wanted to, you could write a list longer than Santa's, identifying every uncomfortable situation during Thursday night's NBA draft. There was James Harden's horribly mismatched suit. There was the long, awkward pause preceding every foreign player whose name David Stern was forced to pronounce. And, of course, there was the video conference with Mike Dunleavy, who looked as though he was staring directly into the sun or coming off a 48-hour poker binge in Las Vegas. Maybe even both.

But nothing -- NOTHING -- was more unsettling than the Brandon Jennings Experiment coming to fruition before Stern's very eyes. Jennings, you might remember, decided to circumvent the NBA's age-restriction rules by forgoing college and playing a year of professional ball in Italy. The plan was risky, but paid dividends when Jennings was taken 10th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday.

However, since no team could assure Jennings that he would be a lottery pick, he elected to watch the draft from his hotel in New York with his family. Naturally, Jennings made his way to the draft after getting the news and, in a fashionably late manner, missing only WWE-style entrance music, he moseyed onto the stage, smiling ear-to-ear.

For Stern, it was a moment in which he'd been defeated. For Jennings, well, it was the good, old-fashioned joy that comes along with bucking the system. If only body language could be translated into words. Sigh.

Hey, while we're at it, let's give out a few other non-conventional awards...

The Christopher Columbus "New World" Award

To Syracuse standout Jonny Flynn, whose usage of the term "mid coast" might have been most startling moment in the 153-year history of the Rand McNally publishing group. Ah, the white, sandy beaches of the ... "Mid Coast?" Yeah, where's that again?

Good question. After his selection at No. 7 by Minnesota, Flynn responded to a question about his performance in Syracuse's six-overtime win over Connecticut earlier this year, and how it thrust him into the national spotlight: "... People on the West Coast [and] Mid Coast got to see me play." Exactly. In related news, we'll have to get back to you on the rumors that Flynn has also found El Dorado and the lost city of Atlantis.

The George Lucas "Phantom Menace" Award

To DeJuan Blair's knees, which begrudgingly accept this award from Darrell Arthur's kidney in last year's draft, and apparently negate the fact that he dominated the entire Big East for most of last season. No, folks, that double-double he averaged at Pitt was clearly not worth one of the draft's first 36 picks. Definitely a smarter move to let him slip to San Antonio, where he'll contribute a ferocious 20 minutes a game and bolster an already loaded roster. Definitely. At what point do we just start blaming other teams for the Spurs' success and stop giving them all the credit?

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