NBA Draft Freezing Cold Takes
by Fred Segal
The NBA draft produces a lot of heated opinions from “experts.” Many of those takes turn cold.
If you are a Cold Take enthusiast like me, a draft should be one of your favorite events. A draft probably produces more hot takes and bold predictions than any other event. As a result, after a few years, I am left with a ton of material with which to work. Here, then, are eight classic cold takes about the NBA draft.
FANS, MOTHERS, AND LEGENDS AREN’T THRILLED WITH THE PACERS SELECTION OF REGGIE MILLER IN 1987
It’s not like Reggie Miller was a bad prospect. The 6’7 sharpshooting guard left UCLA in 1987 as the second-leading scorer in the history of the program. He seemed like a perfect fit for the Indiana Pacers, who needed a young shooting guard.
But Miller’s potential didn’t matter to the Pacer faithful. Why? Because he wasn’t Steve Alford. Not that the Alford, a 6’2 shooting guard from Bob Knight’s Indiana Hoosier program, was better than Reggie. But Alford was an Indiana born-and-bred golden boy who was coming off a legendary college career that culminated with a National Championship just a few months prior.
So when the Pacers picked Miller with the 11th overall pick, the fans didn’t react kindly. According to a USA TODAY report, as the pick was announced “boos rattled through” a draft party at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. Walsh was in the arena that night. He later reminisced to NBA.com:
“When I came off the stage, I said, ‘We’re not doing this anymore, having everybody in the arena,’ “ Walsh said. “People were telling me I was going to get shot and I thought if I was going to get shot I wasn’t going to make it easy for them, so I ran off the stage.”
Legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach seemed to think that Walsh should’ve listened to the fans.
“Reggie Miller is gonna have to be a super duper great player because every time he misses a shot they’ll get on their case, (about) why didn’t they take Steve Alford…You just wonder …”
Unsurprisingly, Alford and his mother were less than thrilled with the Pacers choice. From the Philadelphia Inquirer…
Alford said, “Where [Miller] fits in with the Pacers I don’t understand. It’s a shame I couldn’t play there.”
Alford’s mother, Sharan, was more pointed in her criticism of the Pacers’ decision.
“They had their chance and they blew it,” she said. “It’s hard to see players of lesser quality going ahead (of her son).”
While it’s nice to have your mother take up for your cause, I think all parties involved here would now admit Miller was not “of lesser quality” than Alford. Miller, now a commentator for Turner Sports (where he is not immune to the occasional regrettable draft analysis), went on to a Hall of Fame career with the Pacers, and is one of the best players ever to don a Pacer uniform. On the other hand, Alford, now the head men’s basketball coach at UCLA, was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks late in the second round, and was out of the league by 1991.
Will fans ever learn to think with their heads as opposed to their hearts?
DOUG GOTTLIEB CEMENTS HIMSELF IN COLD TAKE LORE WITH STEPHEN CURRY QUOTE
Doug Gottlieb probably has some very fond memories of his time at ESPN. However, there is one lasting image from Gottlieb’s ESPN days that likely makes him cringe. It’s in the form of a tweet made by the official SportsCenter account in April 2009…
Gottlieb may have been right about Curry’s athleticism, but as for upside, Doug was just a tad off the mark. Although some of the players he mentioned have had productive NBA careers, none of them (Ricky Rubio, Brandon Jennings, Johnny Flynn, Patty Mills and Jeff Teague) can hold a candle to Curry, who has transformed himself into a bona-fide superstar. In the past three seasons, Curry has scooped up two MVP awards and two NBA titles with Golden State and is universally considered one of the Top 5 players in the league. Now that’s upside.
GARY PARRISH CALLS ANONYMOUS SCOUT’S PAUL GEORGE ASSESSMENT “STUPID”
Gary Parrish is used to being critical. During the college basketball season, the longtime CBSSports.com college basketball writer skewers some of his peers each week in his highly entertaining “Poll Attacks” column where he scrutinizes certain college basketball writers’ AP Poll Ballots. During the 2010 draft, Parrish channeled criticism in a different direction when he tweeted out this gem:
Parrish sent this tweet on the night of the 2010 draft. Thus, he was likely referring to commentary during the TV coverage right after Paul George was selected by Indiana with the 10th overall pick. At the time, it didn’t seem like a ludicrous statement. George was a bit of a mystery to some as he didn’t receive much exposure playing for Fresno State in the Western Athletic Conference. Many were skeptical about why he was considered a lottery prospect. Some didn’t even really know who he was.
Whether George turned out to be the best player in the draft is debatable, but one can argue that he is. The only other players in the 2010 draft that could possibly qualify are John Wall and Gordon Hayward.
At this point, it doesn’t even matter. Regardless of who actually is the best, to say at the time that Paul George would be the best player in the draft looks more prophetic than dumb. The anonymous scout should feel vindicated and exonerated from snarky tweets like the one from Parrish. So if anyone sees the scout lingering around anywhere, let him know that we are all proud of him.
PRE-DEBATE SKIP BAYLESS SWINGS AND MISSES ON ALLEN IVERSON
Before Skip Bayless began embracing debate, the former First Take and current Undisputed star had a long career as a columnist for a handful of newspapers throughout the country. Back in the mid-1990s, Bayless was not a household name. If Skip wanted to lament about a player’s lack of clutchness, rather than firing off a provocative tweet or arguing with Shannon Sharpe, Skip had to write a column.
One of the only times you’d find a sportswriter like Bayless on national TV was on ESPN’s Sunday morning talk show The Sports Reporters. According to a June 1996 edition of the Oshkosh (WI) Northwestern, Bayless appeared on the show around that time, and while I haven’t been able to find a clip of the episode, fortunately for us, the Northwestern documented a quote from the appearance.
“He’s not even a Nick Van Exel. He’s just a product of the Big East hype machine.”- Skip Bayless, on ESPN’s ‘Sports Reporters,’ talking about Allen Iverson, the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft”
Yes, he is referring to THE Allen Iverson. The same guy who crossed up Michael, stepped over Tyronn Lue, and ranted about practice. That guy. Leading up to the 1996 draft, Iverson, then a Georgetown University sophomore guard, was the consensus No. 1 player on most experts’ draft boards. Bayless apparently saw it differently. Not to slight Nick Van Exel, who had a very nice, albeit sometimes controversial, NBA career, but he was no Allen Iverson.
Unsurprisingly, Bayless never really warmed up to Iverson. Except except for the occasional backhanded compliment, Skip was frequently and relentlessly critical of the ex-Sixers star from the beginning to the end of his career. Sound familiar?
WOJ MISSES MARK WITH NETS SUGGESTION
Adrian Wojnarowski is one of the most important NBA writers in the country. “Woj,” the current editor-in-chief of Yahoo! Sports’ The Vertical, seems to have his hands on every NBA related breaking news story.
Before he was dropping “Woj Bombs” on Twitter, he was a columnist for The Record, a daily newspaper in Bergen County, New Jersey. In the summer of 2000, the New Jersey Nets, who were just coming off an unsuccessful attempt to lure Mike Krzyzewski away from Duke, had the first overall pick. Just before the draft, Wojnarowski took to the pen to implore Nets President and General Manager Rod Thorn to draft “Mini-KG” Darius Miles.
If Thorn missed on the best coach in the country, he doesn’t have to lose out on the best prospect in Wednesday’s NBA Draft. Darius Miles is leaping out of East St. Louis (Ill.) High School, past a crumbling college game, and straight for stardom. The Nets can’t let him pass. They’ve got the No. 1 pick. Maybe they can trade down to No. 4 and get him. Maybe they have to hold on to the top pick to do it. Whatever it takes. Thorn, the Nets president, has to get him.
People are calling Miles, a 6-foot-9 inch forward, “Mini KG” for his frightening resemblance to Kevin Garnett…The Nets never had a chance to get high school stars Garnett or Tracy McGrady, but they made a catastrophic mistake by leaving Kobe Bryant on the draft board for Kerry Kittles.
The next great one is here, wth no reservations on life with the Nets.
“(Miles’) upside may be higher than any player in the draft,” Thorn said. “If you come to the conclusion that he can be a great player, you consider taking him. You never pass up greatness.”
So this is the time, take it.
The Nets didn’t end up heeding Woj’s Carpe Diem plea. Instead of picking Miles, they chose University of Cincinnati big man Kenyon Martin. It turned out to be wise.
Martin starred immediately for the Nets, making the all-rookie team in 2001, and then helped lead the Nets on a franchise turn-around that saw them make win back-to-back Eastern Conference titles in 02–03. In 2004, he had his best season averaging 16.7 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, and made the All-Star team. After the 2004 season he was traded to Denver and continued his productive career before retiring in 2015.
As for Miles, his future looked promising during his first two seasons in the league. He joined Martin on the All-Rookie team in 2001, and was an integral part of an improved Clippers team that almost made the playoffs in 2002. But after the 2002 season, he was shipped off to Cleveland, and over a year later he was sent to Portland, where he infamously clashed with Coach Mo Cheeks. At the end of the 2006 season, he blew out his knee and was never the same.
COLIN COWHERD, GREG ODEN, KEVIN DURANT, AND A RANT FOR THE AGES
Many wonder what could have been for Greg Oden. The former Ohio State center and number one overall pick in the 2007 Draft had so much promise. But immediate knee problems derailed what could have been a legendary career. To rub salt in Oden’s wound, his main competition to be the top pick, Texas freshman Kevin Durant, has thrived.
Leading up to the draft, there was a healthy debate about whom Portland Trailblazers should choose with the first pick between Oden and Durant. One Oden supporter was none other than current Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports Radio personality Colin Cowherd. However, the simple fact that Colin preferred Oden is not what makes this notable; It’s the way Cowherd presents his argument and the hilarity that hindsight allows us to view it.
Cowherd, then with ESPN, discussed Durant and Oden in a segment of a June 2007 episode of his radio show The Herd. Thankfully someone extracted it and published it on YouTube for our listening pleasure. If you have five minutes, I highly suggest you give it a listen.
In the clip, Cowherd gushes and fawns over everything about Oden. At one point, he declares that there is absolutely no debate about who should go number one.
It’s over. No other argument. Any talk show host. Any emailer, any caller that goes on and says that Durant should be number one, isn’t doing their homework or is trying to incite calls and be controversial. Greg Oden is the number one pick. It’s all over. Thanks for flying United. It’s all over. Plane has landed. Grab your luggage. Orderly walk out of the plane thank you, thanks for flying. So long. It’s all over. There is no other, he’s number one.
Nevertheless, I’m willing let Colin slide on his Oden choice. Few could have predicted the injuries that Oden suffered, and without that knowledge, it’s a bit unfair to say that arguing Oden over Durant was a mistake. As a matter of fact, while Durant had his fair share of support at the time, it seemed that at least a slight majority of pundits and experts favored Oden.
With fairness in mind, I’d rather highlight the portions where Colin focuses on Durant. Rather than simply arguing that Oden was the better prospect, Colin ruthlessly and repeatedly ridiculed Durant, essentially painting a picture of a feeble boy lacking the body type to succeed in the rough and rugged world of NBA.
The clip starts out with Cowherd meticulously analyzing a report from the 2007 pre-draft combine that contains each prospect’s measurables and test results. After lauding Oden’s scores, Cowherd proceeds to brutally mock Durant’s. He becomes particularly fixated on the fact that Durant could not bench 185 pounds.
“Players were rated on how many times they could bench press 185 pounds. That is important. Even though it’s not as important as the NFL, the reality is that the NBA season is long, your durability and your core strength is really important. Only one player in the pre-draft camp was unable to bench even 185 pounds. Kevin Durant. Come on. That is embarrassing. I’m a talk show host and I bench over 185. That is brutal!”
About a minute later, he continued.
“Can’t bench 185 pounds. One guy couldn’t bench a buck 85. One! Kevin Durant. ‘Well it doesn’t matter.’ Yes it does. This is a physical league. It’s a long, long, eight month season.”
He then starts mentioning players comparable to Durant. First, Mike Dunleavy, Jr.!
“I mean I think Mike Dunleavy, Jr. is an incredibly talented basketball player. But you know, he was thin. He gets pushed around. Strength matters. Strength matters in everything. It matters in golf, it matters in lacrosse, it always matters.”
Next, Antonio McDyess.
Listen, I’m not a big fan of centers, drafting Centers, because like 70–80 percent are flops. But you are telling me that I can draft just another wing guy. Just another guy who, you know, he’s got Antonio McDyess written all over him. He’ll be a good player, but he’s just another wing guy.
Here’s the grand finale where Colin goes back to Durant’s weak bench pressing skills.
“He’s a wing guy who can’t bench press a buck 85. Danica Patrick can bench press a buck 85. So can Dan Patrick. Patrick Swayze. 185!…That’s embarrassing. Can’t bench press 185? Kevin, is your girlfriend playing? Sheesh.”
That deserves a mic drop. The question now becomes: Can Dan Patrick really bench 185?
LEBATARD WANTS MELO OVER LEBRON
The buildup to the 2003 draft didn’t provide much suspense as to who would be the number one overall pick. LeBron James, then a schoolboy prodigy from Akron, Ohio, was a lock to be the top choice by his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers. But as always, there were a few skeptics.
One of them was current ESPN TV and radio personality Dan Le Batard. In May 2003, Le Batard, then a columnist with the Miami Herald, let it be known that if he was in charge of the Cavs, he would trade down from number one slot to pick select Syracuse freshman forward Carmelo Anthony. A few months earlier, Anthony had led Syracuse to an NCAA Championship. Here are a few excerpts from May 25, 2003 Le Batard column titled “Proven Anthony is a Better No. 1 Choice.”
“At the risk of blasphemy, I don’t take LeBron James. If I have the No. 1 pick and can somehow trade it while still getting Carmelo Anthony, that’s what I do. I trade the rights to James to a team desperate enough to give me value for all the overinflated hype James brings with him, and the seats it will fill, and drop to No. 2 or 3. And then I make my team better more immediately with Anthony than I do with James”
“Anthony is ready for the NBA right now. James isn’t, no matter how much buzz he gets. If it took Kobe Bryant a season and Tracy McGrady two before they even reached double digits in scoring average after high school, James won’t be doing it as a rookie, either.”
“James will be great. But so will Anthony, and sooner.”
After the draft, Le Batard doubled down…
“LeBron James is going to disappoint us. He isn’t going to live up to his unprecedented hype. He isn’t ‘can’t miss.’ He is the new generation’s first ‘can’t win’ kid. James isn’t going to be a Ryan Leaf bust, mind you. Problem is with the expectations, he isn’t allowed to be merely Peyton Manning, either. He’ll always be a very good player who is never good enough. There is one standard for him to reach — Michael Jordan — and anything less than that will be a failure. … And James isn’t even the best player in his own draft, by the way. Carmelo Anthony will be better immediately and forevermore…”
Ironically, seven years later, Le Batard, a Miami native and Heat fan, enjoyed the fruits of LeBron coming to play for the Heat and leading the franchise to four straight finals appearances and two championships. Sure hope Dan wasn’t disappointed.
NBA SCOUT’S ILL-FATED KOBE COMPARISON
After Kevin Garnett successfully made the jump straight from high school to the NBA in 1995, it was only a matter of time before more high schoolers would start following suit. It wasn’t a long wait. A year later, a few more high schoolers entered the draft, including Philadelphia area superstar Kobe Bryant.
With little precedent as to how American high school players would transition into the NBA, it’s easy to see how one would favor a European teenager. With that in mind, let’s look back at a quote from one Marty Blake, then the NBA’s Director of Scouting. Here’s Blake, as reported by Dick Weiss in the New York Daily News in June 1996.
“We’re talking about Kobe Bryant and Predrag Stojakovic. Let’s not even think about them in the same breath,” Blake said. “Predrag is much better and shouldn’t even be on the same court as Bryant.”
It goes without saying that Blake’s comment looks silly now. Kobe was picked by the Hornets at No. 13 so that they could trade Kobe, who wanted nothing do with Charlotte, to the Lakers. He eventually accumulated five championship rings and is widely considered to be one of the top 10 players of all time.
Stojakovic, meanwhile, was picked right after Kobe at 14 by the Kings, but stayed in Greece until 1998. By 2001 he was consistently averaging 20 points per game and became a three-time All-Star during that stretch. He had a very good career, but no one would even think about calling him one of the ten best players of all time. If you ask Stojakovic, I bet he’d love to be mentioned in the same breath as Kobe.
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