Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Fultz, facts and NBA draft fun

Sure, there's more to the draft than Markelle Fultz. But what the heck is Teemu Selanne's name doing in here?

Josh Jackson pays tribute to a former coach.
Josh Jackson pays tribute to a former coach.Read moreCharlie Riedel/AP

The only thing that could make the NBA draft just a little bit better was if it was being held on the Ben Franklin Parkway. Or in the Italian Market.

There will again be an early run on freshmen, with the top two picks virtually set. Beyond that, who knows? And just to make things even more interesting, everybody throw a dollar into the kitty every time somebody on TV mentions "skill set," "upside" or "length."

Here are 25 things to know about Thursday's draft:

  1. If/when the Sixers pick No. 1, it'll be the fourth time in the last 54 years a team has had the top pick in consecutive seasons. Houston, 1983-84 (Ralph Sampson, Hakeem Olajuwon); Orlando, 1992-93 (Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Webber) and Cleveland, 2013-14 (Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins) are the others.

  2. Since 1985 when the lottery began, 28 of the 32 players selected No. 1 overall did not win a title with the team that drafted him. The exceptions are David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, who gets an asterisk because he took his talents elsewhere for four seasons before returning to help the Cavaliers win the 2016 title.

  3. The draft starts at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Rece Davis, Jalen Rose, Jay Bilas and Michael Wilbon will lead ESPN's coverage. NBA TV also is covering the draft live, and includes a report from Philadelphia.

  4. Washington was 9-16 with Markelle Fultz in the lineup last year, 0-6 without him. He's expected to be taken No. 1 overall by the Sixers – unless he's dealt to the Cavaliers for Roy Hinson.

  5. Bob Houbregs, No. 2 in 1953, is (for now) the highest drafted player ever from the University of Washington. He was picked by Milwaukee right after Baltimore took Ray Felix. Houbregs played just five NBA seasons, but was such a star at UW that he was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1987 in the same class as Rick Barry, Walt Frazier and Pete Maravich.

  6. The "Coach Al" that Josh Jackson mentions in his Twitter profile is a nod to high school coach Al Anderson, who died of heart attack in 2013 when Jackson was a freshman. In 2015, Jackson's stepfather, Clarence Jones, also passed away from a heart attack.

  7. Louisville's Donovan Mitchell really wanted to play baseball as a kid, but broke his wrist during a collision with a teammate in high school and eventually focused on basketball. The teammate broke his jaw on the play. Ouch.

  8. The mantra in Sacramento, as uttered by general manager Vlade Divac, is to "go young and start over." The Kings, the only team with two lottery picks (Nos. 5 and 10), haven't been to the playoffs since 2006 and have had nine head coaches in 11 years.

  9. The Celtics, who shook up this draft by trading the top pick, also traded down from No. 1 to No. 3 in 1980 in a deal with Golden State. They got Robert Parish in that deal, selected Kevin McHale with the third pick and won three titles. Golden State took (groan) Joe Barry Carroll with the top pick and was mostly irrelevant for the next three decades.

  10. The Mavericks (No. 9) are slated to pick in the top 10 for the first time in 19 years. Right after they took Robert Traylor with the sixth pick in 1998, they shipped him to Milwaukee for Dirk Nowitzki (the ninth pick) and Pat Garrity. How'd that work out?

  11. The record of 14 freshmen taken in last year's first round will be seriously challenged if the mock drafts are to be believed. In fact, some have freshmen going with each of the first nine picks.

  12. Among the guys with injury concerns are Indiana's Og Anunoby and Duke's Harry Giles, who would have been the prize of the Blue Devils freshman class except for knee injuries. He's had three surgeries.

  13. The "T.J." in borderline lottery pick T.J. Leaf's name stands for Ty Jacob. He was UCLA's leading scorer (16.3 ppg) and one of the three slow-footed white guys LaVar Ball – father of Bruins star Lonzo Ball — blamed for UCLA's loss to Kentucky in the Sweet 16.

  14. Kentucky's De'Aaron Fox had 39 that day against Ball and the Bruins, and earlier in the year became just the second Wildcat to register a triple-double. Chris Mills (1988) is the other. Fox should make it eight years in a row that a Kentucky player has been taken among the top seven picks.

  15. Lonzo Ball is expected to become just the second UCLA player picked by the Lakers in the first round in the last 38 years. Jordan Farmar (2006) is the other. Toby Bailey (1998) was a second-round selection.

  16. Modell's has kids Nike Team Hustle basketball sneakers on sale for $54.99. Or, for nearly 10 times the price, you can get a pair of Ball's shoes for $495. SMH.

  17. French guard Frank Ntilikina's last name is pronounced Nee-Lee-Kee-Na. He will turn 19 next month and is considered one of the top international players

  18. Isaiah Hartenstein, 19, has been playing professionally in Europe since he was 16. "My body is fit for the league right now," said Hartenstein, listed at 7-1, 225 pounds. His dad, Florian, was a reserve at the University of Oregon from 1997-01.

  19. NCAA Tournament hero Sindarius Thornwell, who helped South Carolina reach the Final Four for the first time, is projected to be a second-round pick. Gonzaga's Przemek Karnowski (7-1, 288) is a borderline second-rounder.

  20. Consensus player of the year Frank Mason III from Kansas also figures to go in Round 2. Ditto for Villanova star Josh Hart.

  21. These seven teams do not have picks in the first round: Cleveland, Golden State, Houston, L.A. Clippers, Memphis, New Orleans and Washington.

  22. Lauri Markkanen, a 7-footer, shot better than 42 percent on three-pointers in his only season at Arizona. He'll become just the second Finnish player to play in the NBA, joining Hanno Mottola, who averaged 11 points for Atlanta from 2000-02.

  23. Markkanen would need to average 17.8 points next season to pass Teemu Selanne's career record for points by a Finn of 1,457 points. Oh, wait. That's hockey.

  24. North Carolina State guard Dennis Smith Jr. is the only player with two triple-doubles in ACC play in a single season. He dropped 32 points at Duke, and his four 30-point games are the most for a freshman in league history. He also led the ACC in assists.

  25. Most likable thing about Kentucky guard Malik Monk is that he requested the No. 5 at Kentucky because, according to the Bible, God created animals on the fifth day. Nice.