Behind the scenes at the NBA draft (cont.)

Kevin Love had plenty of questions on draft night about why most of his new teammates in Minnesota will be point guards. AP

SLAM magazine's Lang Whitaker, at MSG:

@langwhitaker: Got stuck behind Sam Perkins on the way back from the dining area.

Calipari (unintentionally?) slighting ex-Memphis Tiger Shawn Taggart, who regularly drove Cal nuts in practice, by spelling his name wrong:

@UKCoachCalipari: At the NBA draft. Good luck 2 Jodie Meeks, Tyreke Evans, Antonio Anderson, Robert Dozier & Shawn Taggert as they persue their dreams 2night

Ex-Dukie Shelden Williams upset over CNN's Michael Jackson coverage:

@SheldenWilliams why did CNN say self proclaim king of rock? if that isn't hating i don't know what is

Nets guard Devin Harris reacting on losing teammate Vince Carter to the Magic:

@devin34 just got home.this probably the roughest day of my life............carter got traded.................are you serious!!!!!

Former Michigan dunkmaster Brent Petway reacting to the talent pool at MSG:

@Airgeorgia: If I was only a few years younger this draft weak...

T'wolves forward Kevin Love reacting to his team's drafting of Ricky Rubio, Jonny Flynn and Ty Lawson in the first round:

@kevin_love what are we doing????????????????? omg we better trade....what are we doing??????????? i dont even know

Love, reacting to Jennings' draft-crashing move:

@kevin_love: brandon jennings is gonna be late to his own funeral

CNBC's Darren Rovell with a Brandon Jennings attendance update later in the evening:

@DarrenRovell1 ... Brandon Jennings hasn't showed for his own Under Armour party yet.

Knicks big man Eddy Curry, waking up at midnight:

@eddycurry: i know its late but i slept thru the draft i do it every year. i sleep thru it just in case i get moved. ill know when i get up

8. My wanderings at one point took me out near the corner of 31st Street and 8th Avenue, where a small crew of autograph hounds were hoping to catch draftees on their way out of MSG. Aside from confusing a random guy in a T'wolves draft hat for Jonny Flynn (and briefly surrounding the guy), the hounds were cool.

Joe Groglio, a 23-year-old from Rye, N.Y., was working on his already-impressive collection of signed Sports Illustrateds; he said he has roughly 1,800 of the 3,700 total magazines signed, "and a lot of the ones I don't have, are because the guys are dead." Groglio had already scored autographs on our preview issue regional covers of James Harden and Hasheem Thabeet, but apparently Thabeet hadn't been too careful in putting down his John Hancock. "He brutalized my magazine," Groglio said, shaking his head.

9. SI's Ian Thomsen reported that a significant number of team doctors refused to sign off on giving a guaranteed, first-round contract to DeJuan Blair and his questionable ACLs. Blair played on repaired knees for the past two years and established himself as the best offensive rebounder of the decade in college basketball. Letting him slip to San Antonio at 37 was idiotic. The Spurs didn't even have a first-round pick, and they had my favorite draft, landing Blair and sleeper Jack McClinton in the second round. Smart franchises keep doing smart things ... while the Kings, Wizards, Blazers, Nuggets, Pistons and Grizzlies all passed on Blair in the second round.

10. The last draftee in the green room was UCLA's Jrue Holiday, who went at No. 17 to the Sixers, but the last draftee in the building was St. Mary's (and Australian) sophomore Patty Mills, who had been projected as a possible first-rounder but dropped all the way to No. 55, where he was picked by the Blazers. My weirdest/saddest moment of the night was following Mills' progress after he'd been picked. Players who'd been taken earlier in the night went through a live ESPN interview, a press conference, 10 more TV interviews in a backstage area, a chat session with NBA.com, and few other promotional spots. Blake Griffin, for example, didn't finish up his obligations until 9:52 p.m., after being drafted at 7:39 p.m.

Mills, meanwhile, only got a quick ESPN radio spot (no TV), and then walked upstairs through empty hallways that, a few hours earlier, had been flooded with teenagers shouting players' names and asking for autographs. He walked through a press workroom with a few stragglers still hunched over laptops, then past a darkened press-conference area that was already being disassembled. A short interview with Craig Sager was the only thing waiting for him, and once that was over, Sager's crew shut off the lights.

For a guy who had declared early for the draft and had high expectations, Mills remained unfathomably upbeat about the whole thing: Right after his name was called, he stopped to high-five a bunch of fans who'd taken up his cause in the crowd, and when I asked him if he was upset, he said, genuinely, "This was still a special experience for me and my family; you don't get to come to New York, or Madison Square Garden, every day. Obviously, you want to go in the first round, but this is still a great opportunity, and that's all I can ask for. ... I don't have any regrets."

Where that opportunity will be, is still a question mark, since Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard reminded reporters later in the evening that Mills "does have an international passport."

11. For a player who was visibly not pleased with his draft situation, we turn to Memphis' Shawn Taggart. He posted this tweet on Friday morning after going undrafted as an underclass entry (as well as having his name misspelled by Calipari in a tweet):

"officially in [f---] it mode. horrible day."