How would absence of NBA workouts affect UK players’ draft profiles?
Of course, the NBA Draft is not immune to the uncertainty created by the coronavirus pandemic. Will the pre-draft process include the annual NBA Combine in mid-May? Will players be able to work out for individual teams?
The fathers of two Kentucky basketball players drafted last year offered contrasting opinions about the value of workouts in the pre-draft process.
Chris Herro said his son, Tyler Herro, benefited from working out for Orlando, Miami, Boston, Minnesota, Indiana and San Antonio.
“It helped him a lot,” the elder Herro said. “People would say, we didn’t think he was that athletic because (UK Coach John Calipari) has a leash on all these guys. That’s no disrespect toward Cal. Cal wants everybody to play together.
“So, I think Ty got to showcase a little bit more of his skill set than he could for Kentucky.”
Herro, who was taken with the 13th pick by Miami, showed more point guard ability in the workouts than when he played for Kentucky, his father said. The elder Herro also saluted Calipari for promoting UK players as NBA prospects.
Meanwhile, Paul Washington reminded that a foot injury prevented his son, PJ Washington, from working out for teams last year. Not working out for a team was a non-factor, he said. The elder Washington even suggested that such workouts can be detrimental. There’s the possibility of injury. And, he added, “not a whole lot of passing is going on” in workouts.
Charlotte took PJ Washington with the 12th pick.
ESPN analyst Bobby Marks, who formerly worked in the front office of the Nets, said the workouts are “a bit overrated. It actually confuses the process. Not sure if you can get anything out of one-against-none or even three-against-three.”
When asked how workouts for individual teams can confuse an evaluation, Marks noted the belated presence of coaches.
“They formulate an opinion from one workout against the scouting department that might have seen (a player) 10 times,” Marks said.
NBA consultant Ryan Blake pointed out that the workouts for teams serve a purpose off the court. Besides the shooting and sprinting, the player and team can get better acquainted.
“One of the best things you get from workouts is to take them from the airport (to the gym) and to dinner to get to know who he is,” Blake said.
This year’s NBA Draft is considered relatively weak. No Zion Williamson. No Ja Morant. So, does that heighten the importance of evaluation, thus making any disruption caused by the pandemic more troublesome?
“That’s subjective, too,” Blake said. “Whether it’s LeBron James or Robert Swift, it’s still important.”
Deadline
Attention Nick Richards, Immanuel Quickley, Tyrese Maxey, Ashton Hagans, EJ Montgomery, Keion Brooks and Johnny Juzang: The deadline for underclassmen to enter this year’s NBA Draft is April 26 at 11:59 p.m. EDT.
Of course, the coronavirus pandemic makes any such deadline, and the NBA Draft itself, tentative.
Laettner footnote
With the NCAA Tournament canceled, the CBS Sports Network has been filling its schedule with re-broadcasts of past games. Thus, UK fans could experience the drip-drip-drip torture of repeated replays of the 1992 Kentucky-Duke game. Another replay is scheduled for 9 a.m. Sunday.
Before his game-winning shot, Christian Laettner already secured a place in Kentucky basketball infamy earlier in that second half. He did so by tapping — or as the Big Blue Nation saw it, stomping — a foot on the chest of a fallen UK player, Aminu Timberlake.
Laettner’s action resulted in a technical foul. But UK fans say he should have been ejected, thus not in the game to take the winning shot. Furthermore, they say, if that tap/stomp happened now with referees going to a sideline monitor to review plays, Laettner certainly would be ejected.
When asked on Tuesday about the tap/stomp, retired referee John Clougherty said justice was served in 1992. Laettner committed a dead ball contact technical foul in 1992 terms or a flagrant one technical foul as it’s now known, Clougherty said.
Upon a review at the sideline monitor nowadays, “if they thought what Laettner did was excessive, unnecessary and could harm (or) cause injury to that player, then they’re going to call a flagrant two,” Clougherty said. In today’s game, a flagrant two technical foul means ejection.
Was the tap/stomp excessive? Yes. Unnecessary? Yes. Cause harm or injury? Uh, no. Timberlake got up immediately with a smile on his face and clapped approval of the technical foul on Laettner.
“If (Timberlake) rolls over and pretends he’s hurt, that’s a whole different situation,” Clougherty said.
When it was suggested that a better acting job by Timberlake might have led to Laettner’s ejection, Clougherty laughed before saying, “but he knew he wasn’t hurt.”
‘Let’s be sure’
Here’s a follow-up question: Would there have been a greater chance of Christian Laettner’s foot tap/stomp leading to an ejection in a game less consequential than one in the Elite Eight with the winner going to the Final Four?
Does the magnitude of a game factor in a decision to eject a player?
“J.D. Collins wouldn’t agree with me, but I think it matters a lot,” John Clougherty said. “A lot.”
Collins is the NCAA’s national coordinator of men’s basketball officiating.
“If I was leading that crew, I’d say, ‘Guys, we have some options here,’” Clougherty said of the Laettner tap/stomp. “‘But we need to be sure. If we’re tossing this guy out of this game, then we need to justify that that was a flagrant two action. … Let’s be sure.’”
‘Only in Kentucky’
Deron Feldhaus, one of two UK players who defended Christian Laettner on the famous game-winning shot, said he had seen the recent video compilation of young boys watching a replay of the historic ending of that 1992 Kentucky-Duke game.
The boys’ reaction? Disbelief turning to dismay.
“They’re already diehard fans at that age,” Feldhaus said. “Only in Kentucky would it be that way.”
Sports as business
Sports businessman Jim Host has done a memoir. The book, which is titled “Changing The Game: My Career in Collegiate Sports Marketing,” is a straightforward first-person account by someone who could be considered the Thomas Edison of athletics entrepreneurship.
Besides creating a radio network for UK basketball and football, Host introduced the NCAA and several schools around the country to greater money-making possibilities in college athletics.
Plus, Host played a role in the planning for Rupp Arena and the KFC Yum Center, had a hand in the hiring process that made Rick Pitino the UK basketball coach/savior, ran for lieutenant governor of Kentucky and worked in the administrations of Kentucky governors Louie Nunn and Ernie Fletcher.
On the personal side, Host spent his high school years in Ashland, attended UK on a baseball scholarship and pitched in the minor league system of the Chicago White Sox. A shoulder injury led his transition to sports business.
Host, who said he intended the book to be an instructional manual in sports business, tells his story in chronological order with a just-the-facts style. With so much to tell, it’s no surprise to hear Host say that it took five years — which included 22 two-hour audio sessions, plus a two-year writing collaboration with co-author Eric Moyen — to produce the 231-page memoir.
It is available at JimHostbook.com, Amazon and (when they’re open again) bookstores.
Correction
A birthday wish last week incorrectly gave Zan Payne’s age. He turned 20 on March 23.
Happy birthday
To Wenyen Gabriel. He turned 23 on Thursday. … To Saul Smith. He turned 41 on Saturday. … To Sean Woods. He turns 50 on Sunday (today). … To former UK assistant coach Ralph Willard. He turns 74 on Sunday (today). … To former UK football coach Hal Mumme. He turns 68 on Sunday (today). … To Johnathon Davis. He turns 51 on Monday. … To former LSU Coach Johnny Jones. He turns 59 on Monday. … To DeAndre Liggins. He turns 32 on Tuesday. … To Erik Daniels. He turns 38 on Wednesday. … To Chris Gettelfinger. He turns 62 on Wednesday.
