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Where are the saviors?
Posted: Thursday June 29, 2000 01:29 PM
Am I the only one who bemoans the fate of the NBA Draft? Am I the only one who remembers when the draft was a pick-me-up, a good cup of morning coffee, a shot in the puny arm for the downtrodden franchises of the land? Am I? Who are these guys who were pulled out of the audience to wear those new hats from their new teams on Wednesday night? Where are the saviors? Where is the instant turnaround magic? Where is the hope? As the hands reach lower and lower on the basketball food chain for the star of the distant future -- here a Darius Miles, there a DeShawn Stevenson or Soumaila Samake -- the present alas, remains the same. The No. 1 pick now invariably is a three-year project. Come with us. Work with us. After three years of incubation, and if we convince you to re-sign with us, we may really have something here. Instead of watching a Kevin Garnett or Jermaine O'Neal build a name, a reputation and a game through the traditional college route, well, we now pay major-league prices to watch these kids develop in a major-league setting. There's some logic involved, the idea that if a kid is good enough to play in the big time he should play in the big time and yet ... Wouldn't that No. 1 draft pick of the New Jersey Nets have looked a lot better if they could have picked the finished Kobe Bryant of today on Wednesday night? Now he would have been an instant savior. Sports Illustrated senior writer Leigh Montville appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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