Weak draft indicates bleak future for NBA

If you managed to stay awake, let alone alert, for the NBA Draft Thursday night, you deserve a pat on the back. How two rounds of drafting gets stretched to four hours is probably some form of television black magic but this year’s draft in particular was more of a snooze than usual.

More than anything, it was an early indication that the NBA’s immediate future is pretty bleak.

All the experts were calling it way in advance that this promised to be one of the weaker draft classes in years. There were a few notable college players who chose to return to school – mainly freshmen Jared Sullinger from Ohio State and Harrison Barnes from North Carolina – when in most years, the best NCAA players can’t wait to declare for the draft.

But if the NBA’s looming labor situation had any part in any college player’s decision to return to school, you could hardly blame them. Who would want to leave the college game to go sit around while the owners and players battle it out?

The two sides are reportedly so far apart (does this sound familiar NFL fans?) that it’s not looking like there’s going to be a full NBA season. Charles Barkley went so far as to tell Dan Patrick on his radio show that, “Honestly, I don’t think were going to play at all next year. Everything is out of whack. These owners are in it for Armageddon.”

NBA Commissioner David Stern indicated that the league’s owners were poised to lose $350 million this season. One big thing the owners want is a hard salary cap, which would mean the one big markets wouldn’t have to spend as much on player salaries, meaning more profits for them. It would theoretically allow smaller market teams to compete. But for obvious reasons, the players are totally against this. There’s also discussion of revenue sharing (because that’s working out so well in Major League Baseball. The owners are taking the shared money for themselves, not putting it into their team payrolls).

So while you wanted to feel excited for all the players that were drafted, there was an overlying sense that you wouldn’t see any of them for a while. There were also more “Who’s that?” moments during this draft.

Unfortunately, as much as the network execs wanted NBA fans to get excited about all the great stories in this year’s draft, the sad truth is the much bigger issue at hand stole the show.

Ricky Rubio: Worth the wait?

Practice your Spanish. Ricky Rubio is coming.

It didn’t take long for that, along with a $9 sale on season tickets (in honor of his jersey number), to get splashed all over the Timberwolves’ official website. They’ve been waiting for this moment for two years.

Whether this is news that should excite Timberwolves and NBA fans remains to be seen. The Wolves sternly believe they have something special in the 20-year-old 6-foot-1, 180-pound Spanish point guard.

Rubio turned pro when he was 14 years old and played for Spain’s Olympic team that lost to the U.S. in the 2008 gold medal game. He was the youngest member of the team - that featured the likes of the Gasol brothers, Rudy Fernandez and Jose Calderon – by five years.

The Wolves used the No. 5 overall pick in the 2009 to draft Rubio, who’s been described as flashy and the kind of player that can thrive in an up-tempo offense.

The problem was Rubio was under contract with his team in Spain at the time and the fee to get him out of that contract was $6 million, only $500,000 of which the Timberwolves were allowed to pay.

So Rubio decided to stay in Spain until the penalty fee became a little more manageable ($1.4 million).

In the meantime, the consensus is Rubio’s gotten worse.

He averaged 10.2 points and 3.9 assists in 2007-08 for DKV Joventut in Spain and 10 points and 6.1 assists in 2008-09. Over the past two seasons with Regal Barcelona, he’s averaged 6.5 points and he lost his starting job.

That’s enough to make any executive sweat but the Timberwolves remain enthusiastic about their long-awaited draft pick.

The argument in Rubio’s defense is that the style of play that his teams in Spain use didn’t properly utilize his ability to improvise on offense and instead, stifled his explosiveness.

Or that could translate into Minnesota’s brass being terrified they made a huge mistake.

Although, how much worse could it get for a team that went 17-65 last season, 15-67 the year before and hasn’t had a winning record since 2004-05?

Minnesota is in need of a capable point guard to lead double-double machine Kevin Love and the rest of the offense. And the Wolves have the No. 2 and No. 20 overall picks in this year’s draft to help rebuild this struggling team.

So while the Timberwolves seem to have a lot to be excited about, it’s all just a big game of wait and see.

Shaquille O'Neal: A Basketball Legend

Today it was reported former NBA Allstar Shaq has called it quits and finally retired his shoes. This is a surprise to the basketball community because he was such an avid symbol for this amazing sport. He's the one who helped jumpstart this global phenomenon.

Shaquille as a young teen was told he wasn't going to succeed in life, and as for trying out for his high school team for first year he didn't make the cut. But him not making the cut the first year gave him more drive to improve much over the basketball season, make the team and surprise everyone. And that's just what he did, Shaquille stepped up his game and soon became known as the one, the only, Shaquille O'Neal.

He is a great inspiration to many adults, teens,and young children nationally and globally. He helped teach kids to never give up on there dreams and if you believe just to see how far it can take you. Even though he's retired and may not be playing on the court anymore, his presence, attitude, and spirit will always be felt and remembered through many centuries and.

Decades to come.with the right mindset,drive,and motivation anything you dream of can be made possible, if you only believe.  Shaq will go down in history as one of the best athletes and a legend for many to live up to in the following years.

By Ashley Kroeger