IS GETTING ITS DRAFT BOARD READY
Some dribbles, double dribbles and other stuff as we await the NBA draft tonight:
1. USA Basketball is telling us today what we already knew, that the 76ers' Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young have been invited to the National Team mini-camp July 22-25 in Las Vegas.
Twenty-five players have been invited, including former Sixer Kyle Korver, now with the Utah Jazz, and Oklahoma's Blake Griffin, destined to be taken No. 1 tonight by the Los Angeles Clippers.
Toronto's Jay Triano will coach the group.
2. Despite what you may have read elsewhere, even on this very website, the Sixers do not have Elton Brand ''on the table.''
''We are not shopping Brand,'' Sixers president/general manager Ed Stefanski said.
3. I'm a big boy and can admit when I've made a mistake: I did not include Brandon Jennings in my mock draft that appears in today's Daily News.
I didn't leave him out to make a statement. In the process of juggling some names at the last minute, I just missed him. What's amazing is, I only got one email about it this morning.
From what I've heard, it sounds as if Jennings could go in the 14-20 range of the first round. But I've also heard that even his advisors are a little antsy. I just read an ESPN note that said there was some indecision as to whether Jennings should be among the players in the fabled Green Room at draft headquarters in New York.
4. I also just saw Chris Monter's annual mock draft, and he has Temple's Dionte Christmas and Saint Joseph's Ahmad Nivins going very late in the second round, but does not have Villanova's Dante Cunningham pencilled in.
Phil Jasner joined the staff of the Daily News in 1972. He has covered the 76ers and the NBA on a full-time basis since 1981. He won the 2004 Curt Gowdy Media Award, presented by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for outstanding contributions to the sport during his career; he was a finalist for the award in 2001, when he also received a lifetime achievement award from the Professional Basketball Writers Association during the NBA Finals. He is a past president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association and the Philadelphia College Basketball Writers Association. Along the way, he has covered high school sports, the Big 5, the Eagles and the NFL, the World Football League, the North American Soccer League and what was then the Major Indoor Soccer League. He is a proud graduate of Temple University, and spent his early professional days at the Pottstown (Pa.) Mercury, Montgomery Newspapers (Fort Washington, Pa.), the Norristown (Pa.) Times-Herald and the Trentonian.
Bob Cooney has been at the Daily News for almost 20 years, working in the sports department the past 12 years. This is his first season on the Sixers beat. He has covered just about everything, but mostly college basketball, where he has been the La Salle beat writer for the past six seasons.
