NBA

With the NBA Finals behind us, we can now look forward to… THE NBA DRAFT.  And now they’re on deadline to decide who’s in and who’s out.  To briefly explain, many college basketball players enter the NBA draft early.  However, sometimes they pull out at the last minute.  This might be because their friends/family/coaches are advising them that they won’t get drafted high (at all), or it could be because they simply just got the desire to keep playing in college.  Okay, the latter is typically not the case, but if a player doesn’t suspect he will go in the 1st round (and feels he’s of first round caliber), he may stay another year in college.However, some players just come out because they HAVE to.  Remember, these players do NOT get paid to play in college, and many have dire financial situations with their families.  They simply need to enter the draft and just hope for the best.  The only catch is that once players sign with an agent, they lose the possibility of returning to college.  This is why you hear speculative college stars say they are declaring for the NBA draft, but will not sign with an agent.  They are keeping their options open.

Well, among the ‘Going To The NBA’ are Wake Forest’s star point-guard Jeff Teague, whom many think is NOT NBA ready, and UCLA guard Jrue Holiday (who many feel IS good enough to the NBA, but would have seriously benefited from another year in college).  Holiday didn’t even play that well his freshman year, and to make this big a leap is quite suspect.  Among the ‘Staying In School’ are Georgia Tech’s Gani Lawal, who was touted as one of the biggest stars in college basketball before the season, but suffered some injuries that affected his performance.  Plus, Georgia Tech stunk last year, and now with Lawal back and paired with one of the superstar recruits of the country in Derrick Favors, you could definitely see Georgia Tech as a #1 seed next year.  And then there’s Villanova guard Scottie Reynolds, who was the hero of the game in this past tourney, hitting ‘The Shot’ (at the last second) to send Villanova to the Final Four.  He didn’t think he could get drafted in the first round, and will rejoin the Wildcats next season.

NFL

Finally, get this, after all the drama and turmoil the Denver Broncos faced this season, losing their starting quarterback Jay Cutler, they just got a fresh scoop of conflict today.  It turns out that their superstar wide-receiver Brandon Marshall wants out of Denver and is demanding a trade.  This is absolutely detrimental to the team’s success.  Marshall isn’t exactly a ‘locker-room’ guy, and if they force him to stay, he won’t be happy and thus won’t play well. This attitude can also poison a team’s chemistry, especially since new quarterback Kyle Orton is just learning the ropes.  And if he goes, that means the Broncos lost 2 of their best offensive weapons for, essentially, no reason.  This could be the worse year in franchise history for the Broncos.