National Basketball League: Drafting 2010
NBA 2010 Playoffs have ended but the Drafts are going to begin very soon. Every year, the National Basketball Association (NBA) selects amateur players to join the league. NBA Drafting is held in New York City and is an important event for NBA and its teams. Each team has its own mind set on drafting the best player out of the process. It is done by a NBA Draft lottery, in which 14 teams that miss the playoffs can participate in the lottery process. The team winning the lottery gets to make the first selection. The lottery helps the team with the worst record to acquire the highest draft.
Drafting players from foreign countries has totally changed the outlook of basketball. Progressing through the years, the NBA slowly started drafting players from other countries as well. 1978 was the year when the first player was drafted. His name was Bahamian Thompson from the Common Wealth of Bahamas, though it is said that his selection was not a real globalization as he spent most of his years in Florida. Sudanese player Manute Bol was picked by San Diego Clippers in 1983, although NBA considered Bol to be ineligible to play, he was drafted again after a few years. Bol’s career died down fast, but is still known for being one of the tallest players ever in the NBA with a height of 7 feet 7 inches.
Over the years, there has been an influx of international players, especially after 1997. On such player includes Tim Duncan from Virginia Islands. Tim has led the Spurs to 56 wins overall ever since he was drafted. By 2001, Yao Ming was drafted as the first player who did not hold an American High School degree or any American college experience. Yao’s pick helped the globalization at NBA. Since then, the Chinese have become quite interested in watching NBA and the ratings for NBA have never been higher in China. They drastically increased as they wanted to cheer for Yao Ming. Asian Journalist Hannah Beech from the Times Magazine claimed that Yao has given his country a great hope in the National Basketball League.
Ever since Drafting has gone international, it has provided more than 100 talented players to the NBA such as Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming, Tony Parker and Andrew Bargani. By 2006, around 87 international players were drafted. In 2005, Andrew Bogut from Australia was selected by Milwaukee Bucks. Andrea Bargnani was drafted in 2007 who is the second NBA player ever to be picked after Yao Ming who does not hold an American College degree.
Rewinding back to the 1990’s takes us to the most remarkable and top picks since NBA came into being. The era consists of players like Shaquille O’Neal, who was drafted in 1992, Allen Iverson in 1996, Tim Duncan in 1997, Yao Ming in 2002, Lebron James in 2003 and Dwight Howard in 2004. Players who have contributed a lot to their respective teams over the years.
Drafting 2010 is going to start in a few days time from now and a lot of mock drafts have been made already, and a lot of international players might be drafted this year. Top 10 picks of the draft are:
John Wall from Kentucky
Evan Turner from Ohio State
Derrick Favors from Georgia Tech
Wesley Johnson from Syracuse
Greg Moroe from Georgetown
Al-Farouq Aminu from Wake Forest
DeMarcus Cousins from Kentucky
Luke Babbit from Nevada
Cole Aldrich from Kansas
Ed Davis from North Carolina
This year’s international pick consist Miroslav Radulica from Serbia as one of the most vibrant international players and might be considered by the team’s mid-to-late first round. Donotos Motiejunas from Lithuania, who is 7 feet tall, is one of the most capable players out of the international player pool. Next on the list is Kevin Seraphin from France who is 6 feet and 9 inches tall and is an avid player who will be playing for PF or in the C position and is most likely to be a high priority for franchises to pick him. Nemanja Bjelica from Serbia has a good dribble around 6 feet and 10 inches. He playing at SF position could be the early-to-mid 2nd unless he comes to give a show stopping performance.
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