Since Kentucky Sports Radio ran across this rather crude and over-the-top post “Want to be an NBA player? Here’s not where to play,” which gloated (among other things) that UK has now gone 11 straight years without producing an NBA lottery pick, the knives are out on both sides.
(Just check out the comments section.)
It is true that ex-Wildcat Tayshaun Prince was just selected for the U.S. Olympic team.
It is also true that as the starting point guard, ex-Wildcat Rajon Rondo helped Boston to the NBA title.
It is true that UK has not had a player chosen as an NBA lottery pick since Ron Mercer (No. 6) and Derek Anderson (No. 13) earned that distinction in 1997.
So where are all those lottery picks coming from, if not UK?
Here’s a look at the schools that produced lottery picks from 1998-2008, with the number of years each school had a lottery pick in parenthesis:
- 9 – Duke (5)
- 7 – Connecticut (5); Kansas (5); North Carolina (3)
- 6 – Arizona (6)
- 5 – Texas (5)
- 4 – Florida (3); UCLA (3)
- 3 – LSU (3); UNLV (3); Utah (3)
- 2 – Arkansas (2); Cincinnati (1); Fresno State (2); Georgia Tech (2); Georgetown (2); Indiana (2); Maryland (2); Memphis (2); Michigan (2); Minnesota (2); Ohio State (1); Stanford (2); Syracuse (2); Washington (2)
- 1 – Ball State (1); Bradley (1); BYU (1); Central Michigan (1); Charlotte (1); Georgia (1); Gonzaga (1); Illinois (1); Iowa State (1); Kansas State (1); Marquette (1); Miami of Ohio (1); Michigan State (1); Missouri (1); Oregon (1); Pacific (1); Rhode Island (1); Rider (1); Saint Louis (1); Seton Hall (1); Southern Cal (1); Tennessee (1); Texas A&M (1); Villanova (1); Wake Forest (1); West Virginia (1); Wisconsin (1)
I guess I would take our one national championship over tennessee’s one lottery pick.
What saddens me is the fact that a Memphis fan is the one wrote the article and responses of fellow KY fans bashing Tennessee is confusing and quite frankly doesn’t make the Blue Nation look good.
You do notice that Louisville is missing from this list, as well.
North Dakota is missing from the list as well.
There was no list in the “article”. In fact there was no other team mentioned at all. It was a cheap hack-job on UK in a cheap UT blog. I’m surprised this garbage was given weight by being added to Sidelines. The entire point is to rile up the BBN, and it’s working like a charm.
No matter, both the Cats and the Cards should have lottery picks next year, and the blogger will have to find something new to tick off UK fans with.
I just used it to do the chart.
I admire you for reading KSR and other blogs. EDSBS is a blog I’ve been reading for a couple of years. It’s very funny and has some of the best SEC football coverage this side of the AJC. People like Ralph should get a better sense of humor or stop reading bad blogs.
I try to read as much as I can, good and bad. Well, try to read mostly good.
Hey, if that’s humor to you, barry, then enjoy it. If it’s a bad blog, then I’m disappointed it was promoted by a blog I enjoy. But I did have to actually read it to know it wasn’t to my taste.
I do try to stay away from the bad, but that’s just me.
I did not list the schools who have produced lottery picks and/or 1st round picks because I provided links from NBA.com in the posting to those pages. I guess people chose not to look at them or overlooked them at all…
Nevertheless, I have just put up another post, attempting to explain further who I am and also why I wrote the original piece…
Oh, thanks for calling my post crude. Coming from a genuine journalist, I consider it an honor. I will add that to all of the comments praising our work from other journalists…
I wouldn’t call the blog the article in question was posted on “cheap”. The Big Lead, Deadspin and CNN have linked to that blog. However I don’t like that article or the writer who posted it.
I will say that blog truly covers all sports. I’ve been reading it off and on since yesterday. The main writer who has the pen name “Thomas the Terrible” actually bashes all team including Tennessee and he’s decently funny. At least he’s fair.
This is the second line of the blog’s description of itself…
“Joel & I am mean, harsh, rude & crude all the time, but above all it will be funny damnit!”
The problem in this case was the lack of a joke, Joel. I mean, I love to laugh at UK as much as the next guy, but there was no joke there.
If you had put some humor into the post you would have been able to mask your disdain for UK a little better. Instead, it just came off like a cold-blooded cheap-shot. A message board flame.
KY Blue, I would guess that on any given day, those three sites link to a couple hundred blogs. Just one post I found on Deadspin currently links to johnqpublic, flatusyahu, cajunboyinthecity, bostonsportz, it is high, it is far, it is..caught, what would oakley do?, machochip, and the sports culture.
It seems like if something funny is posted somewhere on a blog, then the rich ones with enough money to pay someone to spend all day looking for something funny on a blog are going to find it.
That shouldn’t convey legitimacy, IMO, just that someone somewhere found something on the blog funny once upon a time.
Ralph, I am sorry that you and about 50 different commenters did not get the joke. But there were people filling our inbox laughing and could not believe that Kentucky fans actually thought I was serious, so there were some that got it and some that didn’t. However, I did offer up a new post on Sunday night that explained who I am, what I meant, and where I was coming from. Plus, I put in several links as to numerous times that I made fun of both Memphis and Tennessee. We are equal opportunity…
As to your point of Deadspin and other blogs linking to another blog, I could not answer the question as to the “legitimacy” of a blog. I can tell you that our blog site has been linked to other blogs and we return the favor.
KY Blue, Thomas is not the only one that makes fun of his own team or teams. I did coin the term “Study Hall Six” for the 6 Vols who failed the fall semester last year and if you click my avatar on the site, you will find one of my favorite posts about the Volunteers entitled “A Message To The Law Enforcement in Knoxville”. I even did a whole series on West Virginia. If you did a little research, you will find that I have written more than one post…