Posts tagged Brandan Wright at FanHouse

There's a show on National Geographic called "Seconds from Disaster" where they chronicle, minute by minute, the events that led up to a famous, tragic event like an airline crash or a gas pipe explosion. This feels like one of those shows ...

Obligatory warning: This thread is SOOOOO not safe for work because of the language. Well, maybe if you work in a porno shop with drunken sailors who have gone off of their Tourette's meds. No...even they would blush. But in this context all of that seems vaguely appropriate.

An absolutely hilarious account, and a pretty accurate one too. Now, Kings fans weren't lining up to jump off of the Tower Bridge because the team selected Jason Thompson. It was because of the cruel way in which the Draft Gods had toyed with them, and did so for the second straight year. Ziller mentioned that this year's Draft felt a little too much like last year's, when the Kings hoped to get Brandan Wright or Joakim Noah before they disappeared from the draft board in the two picks before it was Sacramento's turn.

Hopefully Thompson turns out to be more than a serviceable big man for the Kings. Because after the way the last two draft nights have gone down in Sacramento, the fans of the team seem to deserve it.

The North Carolina Tar Heels are having quite the off-season. Sure, Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough is coming back ... but no one knows what he's coming back too. Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green have all declared for the NBA Draft (they all have the option of coming back to school by the June 16th deadline).

Now comes word that forward Alex Stepheson is leaving school and will transfer somewhere closer to home.

"My family is dealing with some health challenges at this time and as a result I have made the decision to transfer to be closer to home," Stepheson said in a statement released by the school.

"I am extremely, extremely disappointed but I feel so great about Alex that I understand his decision to transfer," UNC Roy Williams said in the release. "... He is a wonderful kid. I thoroughly enjoyed coaching him and know that he would have contributed so much more in the next two years. Nevertheless, I have tremendous respect for Alex and know that he will always be part of our Carolina Basketball family. I'll miss him, but he will always be important to me."

Home, for Stepheson, is the Los Angeles area. Stepheson was UNC's top reserve big man last season and brought much needed toughness on the floor. He turned into one of the team's premiere shotblockers and rebounders.

The fact that Stepheson is transferring is par for the course of UNC's elite 2006 recruiting class. Brandan Wright turned pro after his freshman season; Lawson and Ellington have declared for the draft; and now Stepheson is transferring. The only players left from that class are Deon Thompson and Will Graves.

Brand hinted Thursday the NCAA and NBA had worked out a deal to create a 20-year-old age limit, which would keep the best players in college for a minimum of two years.

The NBA adopted a 19-year-old age limit in its collective bargaining agreement with the players' association in 2006, which prevented high school players from jumping directly to the NBA.

This would essentially eliminate those "one-and-done" guys like Greg Oden, Kevin Durant and Brandan Wright from last year.

I love the rule because I think it is in the best interest of both the NBA and NCAA. The NBA will get a more experienced and skilled player (for every Kevin Durant, there are dozens of Brandan Wright's not playing) and the NCAA gets to keep its stars a bit longer. Imagine if Texas still had Durant or Ohio State had Oden? Would UNC been exposed by Kansas like that if Wright had still been around?

The Warriors want him running and jumping, and Wright is assuredly capable of that.

"We haven't really seen him play, but as far as doing the drills up and down the floor, he's the fastest guy that we have, besides our guards," Silas said.

Wright is a few inches shorter with less of a proven offensive repertoire than Kevin Garnett and Chris Bosh, but Wright (left-handed like Bosh) says he didn't shoot the mid-range jumper at Carolina because there were so many other offensive options.

"You'll definitely see me take that shot this year," Wright said.

-Suns: Won't give up the younger Stoudamire, couldn't make it happen in a last-ditch draft night effort, hard to see how this happens even though KG really, really wants it to happen with Phoenix.

-Mavs: Hard to ever see how this would happen, other than by Mark Cuban-inspired abracadabra. Possible I guess. Would be real magic.

-Warriors: Still chasing. Have all the necessary pieces for a discount KG deal (in January or February, when Kevin McHale will be panicking) or a major KG deal (Aug. 6 8, when Brandan Wright can be traded), whatever McHale feels necessary to do.

Half the fun of the NBA Draft is in the draft day suits. FanHouse's own Miss Gossip caught up with none other than the shiny suit man himself, P. Diddy, to dissect some of this year's fashions.

The global bad boy of music, fashion, television, restauranting, and business offers his opinions on a handful of stand-out dressers from the 2007 class.


Yi Jianlian (6th overall)

Miss Gossip: Yi played it safe with a pretty traditional ensemble, but I think he looks sharp. Do you agree?

Puffy: Most definitely. Here's a brother who knows how to dress right ... Yi is rocking a crisp Sean John suit from our latest collection. Sean John suits are all about impeccable tailoring and quality that lasts. Can't stop. Won't stop. Eh eh, eh eh.

If I were Jason Richardson, I wouldn't be happy either.

Listen up, young players: don't mess with Michael Jordan. It looks like Brandan Wright was absolutely correct earlier tonight when he said "I don't think Jordan wants any right now." Although Wright was joking around about playing MJ on the court, now it appears he'll never get the chance. The Bobcats shipped Brandan's disrespectful ass to Golden State, for quality swingman Jason Richardson.

Jordan had mentioned more than once leading up to the draft that he wasn't interested in another rookie, and that he wanted to add some proven talent to his team to get them to the playoffs. This move accomplished the proven talent portion of that goal, because Jason Richardson is definitely solid. But the playoff part is still very questionable.