Draft Special: Diamonds in the Rough

by Matt Tumbleson

With the New Jersey Nets’ post season run now over, Nets faithful can now look forward to a hoops junkie’s annual rite of June, the NBA Draft. Once the action begins on June 28th at Madison Square Garden the Nets’ flock will have to wait until the 17th pick of the 2007 Draft to find out who will be running the break next season with Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter. But just because the Nets don’t have a lottery pick it doesn’t mean the Nets brain-trust won’t be able to find star quality when they go on the clock.

In recent NBA history general managers and team presidents have proven on countless occasions that you don’t have to be in the lottery to find a gem of a player in the draft. Since the 1990 NBA Draft alone there have been 22 players who have been drafted with the 17th pick or lower and gone on to become NBA all-stars.

These draft gems have come from all ends of the basketball spectrum in their quest for NBA stardom. There have been players who have come from big-time college programs (Gilbert Arenas/ Arizona and Carlos Boozer/ Duke for example), high-school All-Americans who entered the draft prior to the league’s current player age restrictions (Jermaine O’Neal and Rashard Lewis) and international stars who have come to the United States looking to make a splash on the NBA scene (Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker). Two of the players on the list even went undrafted by NBA teams (Brad Miller and Ben Wallace).

Granted players selected later in the draft might not make an immediate splash on the NBA’s landscape like LeBron James did when he joined the Cleveland Cavaliers after they selected him with the first overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, it does not take long for the late selections to make a difference with their respective teams.

In only his second season in the NBA Tony Parker started all 82 games for the San Antonio Spurs at point guard as helped the Spurs capture their second championship in franchise history. Sam Cassell also made an immediate impact on the NBA’s biggest stage in his rookie season, as he averaged 9.4 points and 4.2 assists in 22 postseason contests during the Houston Rockets 1994 NBA Championship run.

Parker and Cassell are not the only players with championship pedigrees as five of the 22 players on the list have gone on to win titles (Parker (twice-Spurs), Cassell (twice-Rockets), Ginobili (twice-Spurs), Okur (once-Pistons) and Wallace (once-Pistons)).

Only time will tell who the next late round draft gem will be, but don’t be surprised if the Nets choice at the 17th pick in the 2007 NBA Draft turns out to be a true “diamond in the basketball rough.”

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