The draft is done. They started it Thursday and ended it today and surprisingly, Tim Tebow was drafted on Thursday itself - ahead of Jimmy Clausen. Broncos coach Josh McDaniels seems to have made up his mind to practically burn that franchise down. After dumping Jay Cutler last year, he has traded away Brandon Marshal this year. After getting rid of 2 of their best talents, he has now drafted Tebow way ahead of the spot his talent actually warrants. I would be surprised if Josh is still employed this time next year, but part of me hopes he would still be the coach for several years to come and personally struggle through Tebow's development. Clausen on the other hand endured a draft day embarrassment worse than Aaron Rodgers and Brady Quinn. Hopefully this motivates him to achieve greatness. Carolina is a good spot for him. The QBs were the biggest news of the first 2 rounds of the draft. It was amazing to see players from the state of Oklahoma fill out 3 of the first 4 and 4 of the top 6 draft spots. Good day for the state and especially the Sooners football program.
The other pick from the first two rounds that caught my eye was Stanford's Toby Gerhart going to the Vikings. Thats a great pick for the Vikes. The interesting story for me from the later rounds was the former FSU safety Myron Rolle. There were questions about his “character” because he left school early to study at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. One Bucs scout asked him how it felt to desert his team. Basically teams have downgraded him because he is smart. Thats ridiculous. Trent Dilfer made a great point on TV that for most players, the priorities are football and play-station or football and partying. Thats considered normal. But they don't want it to be football and education. That raises some eyebrows and I can only laugh. Rolle eventually went with the last pick of the sixth round to the Titans. Weber State receiver Tim Toone was "Mr Irrelevant". He went to the Detroit Lions as the last pick of the 7-Th round. Looks like the Lions post-Millen have started drafting WRs with the last pick instead of the first pick. Thats good for them. They have pretty much wasted the last decade drafting WRs with their first pick year after year. All in all a fun draft. More than anything, it ends ESPN's 3 month obsession with the draft and I am thrilled about that.
In the NBA, the OKC Thunder took it to the Lakers today to even the series at 2-2. Everybody is talking about this young team, but the bad news is, they still have to play a 3 game series with 2 of the games in LA. That unfortunately makes game 5 a must-win for the Thunder. If not, there is no way they go into LA and win game 7 even assuming they win game 6. Thats the power of home field in the playoffs - especially in a series like this where a young team is playing a talented, veteran squad like the Lakers. I hate to rain on the OKC parade, but this series still belongs to the Fakers. But I am happy for the Thunder and what this means for their future. In the Suns series, Brandon Roy played spoil-sport today. He came back way way too early from his injury and caused some unnecessary excitement. He didn't have a great game, but he was a shot of energy for the Blazers. It seemed like the Suns played to lose and they eventually did. They were horrible in the 4-Th as Nash couldn't hold on to the ball and they ended up scoring just 87 points. Thats usually what they score in 3 quarters. The good news is, the series is still 2-2 and the Suns have home court. But the Suns need to focus and get the job done in game 5. They need to slow down LaMarcus Aldridge somehow.
Lots of fun series in these playoffs but the Spurs-Mavs may be the most fun. Mark Cuban might have cost them this series and may be a shot at this year's championship by mouthing off on how the Spurs and the Mavs hate each other. He also went after the Spurs owner a little bit and that seemed to have energized the Spurs. The Spurs are a classy organization and Cubes had no business going after them like that. They have now won 2 straight and are playing game 4 at home. Of course, thats a must win for the Spurs. Otherwise, they will still be looking at a 3 game series with no home court. Not an ideal situation. But Duncan, Parker and Ginobli are baling right now. The Mavs seem to have no answer to any of them and their only shot seems to be to outscore the Spurs if possible. All the other series are also intriguingly poised except for Orlando and Boston. Those 2 teams are comfortably placed at 3-0. Even Cleveland has an important game tomorrow that could potential tie their series and make it a dog fight. Lets see if the King comes through.
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