Basketball

Pardon my takes: From Kawhi to Adam Morrison to Draymond Green, 20 NBA Draft picks I nailed (or got terribly wrong)


The NBA Draft will take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn Thursday night, but for those of us in the bloviating commentariat, the real action will take place over the airwaves, on social media, and through a live stream near you. Draft night is a great time to blah blah blah. None of the draftees have played a game yet, therefore none of our opinions can be proven wrong for a while.

In time, of course, many of those takes will turn out to be off-base. Some will be flat-out embarrassing. That’s OK, because we’re all really just guessing. So it bugs me when I see so many of my media brethren watch an NBA game and furiously type, “I TOLD the (team) to take (player they didn’t draft who turned out great) over (player they drafted who sucks)!!!” Really, dude? Then show me the receipts.

When it comes to the NBA Draft, being wrong is half the fun. Fortunately, I’ve had a lot of fun over the years — 25, to be exact. That’s how many drafts I’ve covered since I was hired at Sports Illustrated. (I was a late second-round pick.) Like everyone else in this business, I voiced my opinions in relative quiet until Twitter came along. The site was born in 2006, and on Oct. 16, 2009, I joined the fun:

Since that moment, I’ve opined on all sorts of topics, but rarely do I have more fun than on draft night. Therefore, as a way to celebrate my silver anniversary, I have compiled a list of 20 players who surprised me the most — 10 in a good way, and 10 in a bad way. I’ve included some of my draft night tweets, just so y’all could collect those receipts. And since I was willing to flagellate myself in this manner, I rewarded myself by tagging this column with eight draft tweets that were on the money. Those were fun, too.

A couple of notes before I get started.





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