The 2000 NBA draft, a look back

With the NBA draft looming (June 28th) I've decided to take a look back to 5 years ago (the 2000 draft), and an NBA draft that contains players with names such as Speedy, and Mamadou. We're going to take a look at the 10 best, and 10 worst picks of that draft. Starting with the best:

10th best pick- Mamadou N'Diaye, Auburn (#26 pick)
And yes, this pick has EVERYTHING to do with his name. It's my favorite name in NBA history. It answers the age old question of, "who loves you?"

9th- Brian Cardinal, Purdue (#44 pick)
All hustle, and has great fundamentals... AKA an overachieving white guy. He was a great pick in the 2nd round, and is the type of player everybody can root for. Plus this was a weak draft.

8th- Quentin Richardon, DePaul (#18 pick)
Your 3 point champion had a good season with the Suns, but threw up some clunkers in the playoffs. He's a great shooter from beyond the arc, but I doubt he will ever be anything more. Also, I belie-...excuse me for a second. Q-DAWG!!! YOU MY BOY Q!! YOU MY BOY!!

7th- Mark Madsen, Stanford (#29 pick)
Ah we can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind
Cause your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance
Well they’re are no friends of mine
I say, we can go where we want to, a place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind,
And we can dance
Ssss-aaaa-ffff-eeee-tttt-yyyy
Safety-dance!

Thank god he was drafted by the Lakers and we were given that magical moment. They need to come out with a dvd where they just loop that footage for three hours. "Mark Madsen's mad mad dance video."

6th- Desmond Mason, Oklahoma St. (#17 pick)
Winning the dunk contest is more important than winning the three point contest. That's why he's ahead of "Q."

5th- Mike Miller, Florida (#5 pick)
Turned himself from a "three point shooter" into a bonafide scorer. He even averages about five boards and three dimes a game. Just in case you're wondering, at this point there are just as many white people on this list as black people... Yeah, it was a weak draft.

4th- Jamal Crawford, Michigan (#8 pick)
He has his own commercial. That's good enough to crack the top five.

3rd- Jamaal Magloire, Kentucky (#19 pick)
I got a question, how come Jamaal Magloire spells his name with two a's & Jamal Crawford spells his with one? Did his parents fill out his birth certificate by taking turns writing each letter with blindfolds on, but then they got out of rhythm and each marked down an "a?" I've already spent more time on this then any human ever should.

2nd- Michael Redd,(THE)Ohio State (#43 pick)
The best value pick of the draft. He's been on the all-NBA 3rd team, and an all star team. He's in that 2nd tier of shooting guards, and may be the "Pippen" to LeBron's "MJ."

1st- Kenyon Martin, Cincinnati (#1 pick)
I think he's about even with Michael Redd, but he looks exactly like Joe Budden, So he wins. Hooray for K-mart.

& now for the worst:

10th worst pick- Stromile Swift, LSU (#2 pick)
This is really by default. He's a mediocre player, who, in a weak draft class, was taken high because of his physical skills. Stromile, If you're reading this, I still love you.

9th- Darius Miles, East Saint Louis (Is there any other Saint Louis?) HS (#3 pick)
Should of gone to college. You knew he was destined to be a Clipper, and now he's faded into mediocrity in Portland. Although, he is partly reponsible for the Q-Dawg head pound which I love so much.

8th- Etan Thomas, Syracuse (#12 pick)
The great thing about the NBA is that Etan Thomas turned his seven points, five boards into 50 million dollars.

7th- Jason Collier, Georgia Tech (#15 pick)
He wasn't good enough to play in the NBA, so they shipped him to Atlanta!

6th- Mateen Cleeves, Michigan State (#14 pick)
The ultimate case of a good college player not panning out in the pros. On a side note, If you heard the name "Mateen Cleeves" whouldn't you think he was the lost member of Monty Python? Or maybe that's just me.

5th- Keyon Dooling, Missouri (#10 pick)
The Clippers have three of the 1st 18 picks, including two in the top ten. Five years later, NONE are on the team. You gotta feel sorry for the Clipper fans- oh wait, no you don't.

4th- Donnell Harvey, Florida (#22 pick)
The man has been on six teams in five years. How can someone be drafted a journeyman? It's the darnest thing I've ever seen...Well, besides that whole Clippers thing I just mentioned.

3rd- Dalibor Bagaric, Croatia (#24)
I think at this point, it's safe to say that no one from Croatia should ever be drafted...Ever.

2nd- Marcus Fizer, Iowa St. (#4 pick)
Who didn't love Marcus Fizer in college? Hell, he even made the all-rookie team (although, with this class, that wasn't that hard.) but I have him here because I thought he was going to be a good pro, and he failed me. He failed himself, he failed us all. But on the bright side, he's not Jerome Moiso.

1st- Jerome Moiso, UCLA (#11 pick)
There is more zero's in his career stats then there are on a scale when Star Jones steps on it. He's never done anything remotely resembling somebody who should have been the #11 pick.


& remember, who loves you?