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Good read by the way
DUANE RANKIN
Keep your head up. That's what I told DeJuan Blair late Thursday night.
As I was leaving the Omni William Penn Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh last week, I had only one thought: Where did I park my car?
Then I saw five cars parked in front of the hotel.
Hmmm.
So I start walking toward the vehicles. Is that him? Can't be.
Yep. It sure is.
Suited down from head to toe, Blair was taking a picture with a fan in front of the hotel without the fanfare.
No honking horns. No cheers of celebration.
He began walking back toward a black car when I got within earshot.
"Hey, DeJuan, keep your head up," I semi-shouted.
With an almost blank look, Blair gave me the upward head nod and got in his car.
One by one they drove off. Only crisp engine sounds broke up the dark silence.
Things didn't go according to plan that night.
Hours earlier, family and friends joined Blair in a suite at the hotel waiting to cheer his name getting called.
With size, agility, strength, will and charisma, this sop re power forward out of Pittsburgh seemed to have all the tools of an NBA first-round draft pick.
So as the media gathered in a room away from the Blair party, this is how the night was supposed to go:
Blair gets drafted in the first round. He'll enter into the room sharp as a tiger's teeth in his new suit.
He'll entertain us with funny, entertaining quotes and take cherished pictures with his family.
None of this happened.
Reporters sat in the room wondering what was going on. The guy was first-team All-America for one of the best teams in the country.
As teams passed on Blair, it became clear they were more concerned about him not having any anterior cruciate ligaments in his knees than they were about his play.
He had owned guys like Connecticut center Hasheem Thabeet, who was the second overall pick in the draft, but wasn't worthy of a first-round selection in the draft.
As the second round began, I began wondering how Blair and his family were taking all this.
The next day, he admitted in a teleconference that it was eating him up.
In fact, he left the room to get away from it all.
So when the San Antonio Spurs used their second-round pick to take Blair, people in the media room were relieved for him.
You have to remember, many of them have followed Blair since he led Schenley to a PIAA le.
So even though he chose not to talk to us afterward, I wasn't mad at Blair.
Disappointed, yes, but his night was ruined, not mine.
He was experiencing a hurt I can't fathom, but if Blair keeps his head up, his magical moment will come.
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...52/-1/SPORTS05
Good read by the way
dude makes it sound like the spurs picking up him was a bad thing
he has a legitimate shot at the championship. would he rather be blake griffin right now?
it has nothing to do with the spurs picking him. im sure he is happy to be with us. its most likely the fact that he didnt become an instant millionaire. lets not forget he is human.
When you expect one thing and something else happens, it's really hard during that moment to say "Well, this isn't the dream, but it's still good." It probably took Blair a while before he could say the right thing, and it's possible he still doesn't believe it yet.
He has to continue to work to make a name for himself. As is such with most second round picks. The guy expected to go in the first. His initial disappointment is understandable.
missing out on guaranteed money......
yea id be pissed to. Imagine having all your family their thinkin your goin from like 12-18 or so then pick after pick goes by for like an hour while you get angrier and angrier, because I know he was thinking I'm so much better than these guys getting picked ahead of me-that's a tough pill to swallow-i can relate to that feeling. Im sure he's going to come in and rip, I really think he's going to play with a chip on his shoulders and damn do we need him. Hope he proves them all wrong and plays a good 20mpg and just beasts on the boards...FO's of other teams will pay for passing him up
he should be fine, when his new contract is up...its a perfect situation for him...fitting perfectly into a chmpionshipcontender, having a great coach and teammates, that can teach and lead him!
the money he lost last week should come later, if he is as good, as everybody thinks he is! how about a rookie-PF-wrecking-mashine with a championship ring in his first season?
cant wait to see him go against thabeet and griffin...will be fun to watch
He doesn't have a guaranteed contract by being selected in the 2nd round... how funny that could be vs being projected to make a couple mill a year for a minimum of 2 years instead?
Now he will have to make it the hard way and probably be signed for MUCH LESS money that what he would have gotten by being selected in the first round...
How much money can a second round pick get?
I thinks its $5.25 / hour. Plus bennys...
If he tears up the summer league I'm sure he'll see a nice check soon.
it's like when you play ball in school, all the y kids get picked first and you're left until the end, then you eat the other team alive.
This will work out well as long as Blair realizes the primary goal is to be a contributor on a championship team.
If he does was Gilbert Arenas did, which was use a second-round snubbing as motivation to run up his personal stats, it will not end well.
Gilbert gets paid 100 million dollars not to win and not to even really play most of the year, so that worked out pretty well.
Gilbert has a skill set that Blair does not have. Gilbert can go for stats, it goes with the position. Blairs tools will now allow him to go for stats or at least do it with any kind of success.
If Blair can rebound like a mofo, he'll get a nice check every 2 weeks.
Most athletes have pride and do not like being the guy that doesn't get picked first in the pick up game, or get picked at all to play, which is what I am sure it felt like to a guy who was an All-American. He is not used to watching other people walk by him.
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