Every new NBA Draft night, they show us old NBA Draft nights, the footage of the first picks and fashion and faces. The faces. It's them, but it's not them — they're so young, impressionable, incomplete. Davidson's Stephen Curry, Duke's Jayson Tatum, St. Vincent–St. Mary High's LeBron James. A manchild with a baby face. At the time, we probably didn't think they looked that young, just like on Wednesday as we watched Georgia's Anthony Edwards go No. 1 to Minnesota. But looking back at luminaries and legends on their draft nights, it's like a snapshot of the before, the cusp captured.
Draft night is one of my favorite nights on the sports calendar, and even during the virtual draft during the pandemic — without the lane-drivers known for their tear-drops dripping tears while shaking the commish's hand — the draft was still great drama. It's also a fascinating night, because we don't know who is going to be who. Of the players drafted, somebody is going to be that draft's star, somebody is going to be that draft's bust. Somebody will be the what-if guy, the injured guy, the underachiever, the overachiever. Even the most sure-minded, globe-scouring scouts and general managers don't totally know.
"I may end up like Greg Oden and my knee gives out because I grew too fast — or I get in the wrong system with the wrong coach, who snatches my confidence out of me," said Anthony Bonner, the Vashon and St. Louis U. hoops legend who was drafted in the first round 30 years ago. "All of these external things come into play when you're a professional athlete. You blossom, not just according to your talent, but also according to the system that you're blessed to go play in. ...
"Now that look back at it, I have empathy and concern for a lot of the young men being drafted," continued Bonner, who played in the NBA from 1990-96 and is now in ministry. "Because I know the road that they're about to travel, outside of basketball — into temptation, all of the things that are lurking to get their attention to get into their circle, to derail them in their career. So for me, I look at it as a different perspective. They're blessed, but they also need to just be very, very aware."
As we saw the new faces of the draft on Wednesday — wow, Curry gets to play with Memphis' James Wiseman? — we're reminded of the old faces. Well, the old new faces at the time. Curry is an icon now, a three-time NBA champ, a multi-MVP winner, but there he was on draft night in 2009, this fresh-faced kid in a business suit. He watched Minnesota draft Jonny Flynn at No. 6 (maybe if Minnesota had taken Curry, they wouldn't have been in the spot to choose first in 2020). And then Curry went No. 7 to the Warriors.
It's almost like you want to just somehow tell 2009 Steph: "If you only knew who you're going to become."
But, to be fair, maybe he did know. While other GMs sure didn't, maybe that's what stirs Curry — this uncompromising inner-belief that he was preordained to be good, and then hard work and hustle would make him great. Jayson Tatum spent his St. Louis childhood not just dreaming of being the next Kobe Bryant, but believing he really could be that good, so maybe "draft night Jayson" would've told "2020 you" that, "Yeah, I'm going to be an All-Star."
So that's the thing. Every single draft pick thinks he will be great in the NBA, but not every single draft pick will be great in the NBA. For every LeBron or Carmelo Anthony, there's Darko Milicic picked in between. Or for every Hakeem Olajuwon or Michael Jordan, there's Sam Bowie. It's a crapshoot to see who can shoot and who's manure.
But for the majority of the players picked, they are beginning a positive professional basketball career, and that means means — money and security and fame. They call the first 14 picks lottery picks, but in a way, every player picked is a lottery winner.
"I mean, just crunch the numbers," said Bonner, who went 23rd overall to Sacramento, and later played for the mid-90s Knicks, even starting seven playoff games. "Less than 1% of all athletes that play high school, college basketball, have an opportunity to go to the NBA. And now the game has expanded to all these various countries. And now the pool has been deepened with all these unknown European players from all over the world that the NBA knows of. So for me ... I just looked at it as divine providence. ...
"Draft night was obviously one of jubilation and joy. And great surprise, because unlike a lot of the current NBA guys that we have (from St. Louis) — Jayson Tatum, Bradley Beal, some of the other ones. Who you saw them in high school, you saw them in college, you kind of knew they were going to be NBA basketball players. Well, nobody said that about me my senior year in high school or my freshman year in college. I progressively got better and better and better. And thanks to a high school coach, coach (Floyd) Irons, and my college coach, coach (Rich) Grawer, they helped me mature and put me in a situation where I developed into an NBA player."
There was a photo of Bonner on the front of this newspaper the 1990 day after the draft. He was sitting on a St. Louis couch next to his mother, Rosetta. His smile was so genuine, his face so young. He had accomplished so much as a basketball player — he has his number retired by SLU — but still, this was a snapshot of the before.
And on Wednesday night, we watched Anthony Edwards and James Wiseman on their NBA Draft night. Remember their faces.
