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Wednesday, June 27
Updated: June 28, 11:43 AM ET
Around The Theatre ...
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
NEW YORK -- Boston had better hope it gets a warmer reception in person from Arkansas sophomore Joe Johnson and Okaloosa-Walton (Fla.) Community College forward Kedrick Brown.
Neither seemed terribly excited Wednesday night.
Johnson was extremely stoic while he was making his media interview rounds. He smiled once at the end of his interview with ESPN, but barely. He said everything was fine, but he showed absolutely no emotion about being taken by the Celtics at the No. 10 pick.
Brown, who was guaranteed to go in the lottery to the Celtics at No. 11, was nearly just as subdued.
"I'm really excited and can't wait to get things started," Johnson quipped without showing a smile. "I thought they needed a great scorer and I can go in there and help them."
Brown said he knows there's a tough adjustment for junior college players, maybe even harder than high school seniors. The last one to go in the first round was Alex Radojevic to Toronto in 1999. He was traded to Denver this season and hasn't been a factor in the league.
But the word in the NBA is that the Celtics might be moving another player. They shocked the teams at the bottom of the first round by taking Joseph Forte at No. 21 instead of a point guard like France's Tony Parker. Unless Forte can play the point, the Celtics have a glut of players in the backcourt with three first-round picks.
Johnson was the player the Celtics coveted the most, followed by Brown. But they didn't seem too jazzed when they were selected.
Last but not least
North Carolina senior Brendan Haywood was the last of the 14 invited players to the draft to be taken. When he was selected by Cleveland with the 20th pick, he was bitter about the selection. He wasn't thrilled with having to be a tutor for DeSagana Diop and felt it would be awfully crowded in the post.
An hour later when he was traded to Orlando for Michael Doleac, he couldn't have been more thrilled. He put his Magic hat over his Cavs hat for a while, then finally took the Cavs hat and tossed it aside.
"I thought it would be a better fit for me," Haywood said. "They needed a four (they drafted Steven Hunter) and a five. They've got Mike Miller and this is a team on the verge of being a great team. Where they need help is up front and I can do that with rebounding."
Crashing the party
The NBA invited only 14 players, but a few players crashed and came anyway. Seton Hall sophomore Samuel Dalembert sat in the stands but when his name was called he still got up to shake NBA commissioner David Stern's hand after the Sixers drafted him No. 26.
"I decided to come to see where I was going to go," said Dalembert, who was questioned after he left Seton Hall after two seasons. "I didn't pay for the ticket out of my own pocket. Someone else did (pay the $10 entrance). I wanted this so bad."
Meanwhile, France's Tony Parker was in the stands too. He said the NBA told him to come, but didn't give him a seat on the floor. He was in the stands where he thought he would be drafted by Boston or Orlando at No. 21 or 22. Instead, he was taken by San Antonio at No. 28.
"It's a great situation for me because it's easy to make a transition with Tim Duncan and David Robinson," Parker said. "I knew when I didn't go to Boston or Orlando that I would go to San Antonio."
Parker could have been a household name had he signed with UCLA last year instead of staying in France for Paris Basket Racing. He said his club team wouldn't let him come to the U.S. Parker, who played with European first-round picks Pau Gasol and Vladimir Radmanovic, said he doesn't see any reason why the three players can't be contributors in the league next season. But don't expect to see Utah pick Raul Lopez from Real Madrid. The first-round pick might not come over for the next two seasons because of a $4-5 million buyout.
Another player who was in the stands, but in the second round, was Turkey's Mehmet Okur. He actually went up and shook Russ Granik's hands after Detroit selected him No. 38. Granik looked stunned as he shook the Turkish forward's hands because he normally doesn't see a second-round pick when he takes over for Stern.
Please hold for the Bulls
Tyson Chandler found out he was traded to the Bulls in an awkward way. He picked up the phone, expecting to hear from Clippers GM Elgin Baylor that he was a welcomed part of their franchise. What he got was a shocking announcement.
"I thought I would get congratulations but he said, 'Tyson, have you talked to your agent? You've been traded to the Bulls.' He said he loved to have me but they needed Elton Brand. It's a business but it was probably better to hear it from him man to man rather than behind the scenes."
Brown still close to Donovan
Top pick Kwame Brown said he was going to go back down to Gainesville, Fla., to work out with Florida coach Billy Donovan before the free agent camp. Brown signed with Florida but spurned the Gators and declared for the draft.
Brown said he spent two weeks in Gainesville working out with Donovan, a promise that the coach said he would honor to Brown after he told him he was declaring for the draft. The two have remained close, even though Donovan will never get a chance to coach him.
Left out
Biggest underclassmen omissions: George Washington guard SirValiant Brown; Compton (Calif.) High center Tony Key; College of Southern Idaho forward Ben Eze; UC Irvine's Jerry Green and Georgia's D.A. Layne. Brown had no choice but to declare because of academic concerns. The same was true of Key and eligibility issues haunted Eze. But Green and Layne got some major poor advice in to thinking they would get drafted.
Seniors shut out: Gonzaga forward Casey Calvary; Michigan State guard Charlie Bell, West Virginia forward Calvin Bowman, Detroit point Rashad Phillips and William Patterson (N.J.) point Horace Jenkins.
Biggest drop
Arizona's Loren Woods was supposed to fall in the first round, but dropping to No. 46 to Minnesota was the shocker of the night. Woods got picked after underclassmen teammates Richard Jefferson, Michael Wright and Gilbert Arenas. He went below Eric Chenowith of Kansas, Okur and Dalembert.
Another guarantee?
Much was made of the guarantee for Brown to go to Boston, but another one was supposed to be made for Alabama's Gerald Wallace to go in the first round. Sacramento took Wallace at No. 25 in the first round, proving everyone wrong that he wouldn't go in the first round.
High climbers
SMU's Jeryl Sasser getting to No. 22 for Orlando after subpar workouts in Tempe, Ariz., and Chicago this spring; Pepperdine junior Brandon Armstrong cracking the first round at No. 23 to Houston and then traded to New Jersey and Indiana junior Kirk Haston to Charlotte at No. 16.
Can't be perfect
Our ESPN.com mock draft did call Lopez to Utah at No. 24 and had Antonis Fotsis going to the Grizzlies -- at No. 27. He went to the Grizzlies at No. 48. At least we got the team right.
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
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