The NBA Draft is awesome and, perhaps aside from the first day or so of free agency is the biggest roster-related day of the year. And it’s coming, this Thursday.
This is considered a down year when it comes to new talent, but there are still plenty of players to be excited about. Especially the guy probably going first overall.
Al Iannazzone of the Bergen Record reports:
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As the NBA Draft nears, Kyrie Irving has been looking back on all he’s experienced. But the former Duke point guard anxiously looks forward to Thursday.
Irving grew up in West Orange, attended Montclair Kimberley Academy and graduated from St Patrick High School in Elizabeth. On Thursday night, when commissioner David Stern announces the draft’s first pick in Prudential Center — which is less than 15 minutes from Irving’s house — Kyrie’s name is expected to be called.
“It’s something I’m thinking about every single day now,” Irving said. “I don’t really think about my reaction. I think about my sister’s and my father’s reaction.
“It will be a dream come true.”
Irving lost his mother when he was 4 years old and is very close to his father, Drederick, and sister, Asia. They will be among roughly 100 family and friends attending that night.
If the Cleveland Cavaliers use the No 1 pick on Irving, who averaged 17.5 points and 4.3 assists as a Duke freshman, he would be the first New Jersey high school graduate to be taken No. 1 overall. Shaquille O’Neal, the No. 1 choice in 1992, is from Newark, but graduated from San Antonio’s Cole High School. Plainfield’s Jay Williams, who also attended Duke, went second in 2002.
Can’t wait to see what happens.
