FanHouse RafaelAraujo

This offseason, NBA FanHouse will address important questions about the league. It will be a Summer of Answers. First up: the biggest draft busts of the decade.

Unless you're a fan of the Toronto Raptors or a huge NBA Draft nerd follower, you may have read that headline and thought, "who's Rafael Araujo? Never heard of him." That was my initial thought anyway, and that, my friends, is exactly why Mr. Araujo comes in at number four on our Biggest Busts of the '00s list.

When you look back at the 2004 draft, everyone taken in the first seven picks before Araujo turned out to be productive NBA (or Euroleague) players. Well, except for Shaun Livingston who had the gruesome knee injury two seasons ago. But that's no biggie, right? The talent level could have simply dropped off after that point, and Araujo could have been the first on a long list of disappointments who just happened to be drafted eighth overall. Unfortunately for him (and the Raptors), this was a very deep draft.

Players selected after Rafael (pronounced "HA-f-eye-ell" if you believe NBA.com) include Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, J.R. Smith, Kevin Martin, Sasha Vujacic, Beno Udrih, Anderson Varejao, Pape Sow ... just seeing if you were still paying attention. The point is this: when a player is selected with the number eight pick, with this much talent still on the board, and his career averages over three seasons are under three points and three rebounds a game, I don't know if "bust" is a strong enough word to describe his NBA status.

Following today's announcement that the Jazz have signed second-round pick Kyrylo Fesenko to a three-year contract, Rafael Araujo's departure from Utah seems cemented in stone. Of course, the Jazz have still extended an invitation to training camp to the unrestricted free agent, but he doesn't sound too inclined to accept. From the Deseret Morning News:

Unless the Jazz make a trade that changes their inside lineup, [Araujo's agent Jim] McDowell considers it "unlikely" that Araujo will be in that Jazz camp come October, where the agent assumes his client would be more injury protection for the Jazz than a viable candidate for a roster spot. "It makes sense to look elsewhere," he said.

[...] McDowell said even if another NBA team offered Araujo what looked like a No. 12 spot on its roster, he might instead opt to play in Europe just to get on the court enough to further his career. "That might not be an optimal situation" for him, the agent said of an NBA end-of-the-bench job. "It would not help his career." McDowell assumes that minutes on the court this season, even if they're in Europe, will put Araujo "in a stronger position than he is now" to seek another NBA deal.

Araujo need to be careful, because unless he really tears things up in Europe it might be hard for him to get back into the NBA -- even if he's not playing, he might just want to stockpile those NBA paychecks for as long as he can keep getting them. Either way, it's been a long, long three years since he was the eighth overall pick in the 2004 draft, ahead of guys like Andre Iguodala, Al Jefferson, Josh Smith and Kevin Martin -- not to mention fellow Brazilian Anderson Varejao.

You know that Rafael Araujo foul on Marvin Williams from Monday that got Atlanta Hawks announcer Steve Holman's undies all in a knot?



Well, the Salt Lake Tribune reports that upon further review the league rescinded the Flagrant 2 foul initially assigned to Aaraujo, essentially downgrading the foul to a run-of-the-mill blocking infraction.

Seriously, how much would have paid to be in the same room as Holman when he learned the news? If David Stern really wants to appeal to middle America, he should just go the way of professional wrestling and put that sort of thing on camera.

At least, that's the gist you get from the commentator there. The audio and the video don't quite sync up (you hear Holman reacting to Araujo getting tossed long before you see it), but you get the gist of what's going on.

That's Rafael Araujo fouling Marvin Williams, and Hawks radio play-by-play guy Steve Holman reacting like he just witnessed the particularly bad scene in A Clockwork Orange.

At first glance, it doesn't look like much more than a hard, but perfectly reasonable foul ... but you don't get the perfect angle of it until about the :40 mark. There you see Araujo come across the lane, make body contact like a frieght train, and also put his elbow up into Williams' face. That's illegal.

At that point, the rage of Holman becomes a little more understandable. Still slightly insane, but understandable, nonetheless.

And pay special attention at the 1:30 mark, where Hawks coach Mike Woodson has a special Valentine's Day message for you.

Big thanks to Awful Announcing, via Lion in Oil.