Hansbrough headed to MSG for the Draft

Well, if you want more positive news when it comes to Tyler Hansbrough, here is something that I (who am a diehard fan of his) did not even expect. From what I have read on both Tar Heel Times, ACC Now (The News&Observer) and Tar Heel Fan the Carolina forward is going to be at Madison Square Garden, in the “Green Room”, at this week’s NBA Draft. This would mean that the young man, who just over a month ago was being told anything and everything negative, is now looking at the possibility that he could be a lottery pick. And to that all I can say is this: the rest of the basketball world is seeing what us Tar Heels already knew, Tyler Hansbrough is for real!

A draft analyst said this of the young man from Poplar Bluff:

“He could go as high as 11, and I don’t see him getting past Utah at 20’’

Not bad for someone that while he was having his run to the NCAA national championship people were thinking might slip into the late 20’s and even into the second round. For me all of this means one thing, that hard work and dedication do pay off. While I am still not sure where Hansbrough will go, I am sure wherever that is he is going to help that team, and he will do so because he will work just as hard as he did for four years under the tuteledge of head coach Roy Williams. As a good friend of mine always says “potential” is the most used word in the NBA, maybe it’s time that these teams (in an uncertain economy) stop trying to imagine about what someone could be and focus on getting someone who they know is something right here and now. I rather know I am getting a player that is going to give me his all everytime he steps onto the floor (be it in practice or a game) than getting someone that might become a super star, but might not. The fact that Hansbrough is climbing up the charts might be showing that franchises are beginning to think the same ways as me.

In the ACC Now article there was plenty of good info, but for me this was the key sentence:

Agents usually do their due diligence to try to make sure their clients will be fairly-early picks before they accept the invitation; otherwise, players risk sitting there for a long while — in view of a lot of TV cameras.

On the other hand, Tyler’s father said this to the media:

“He was planning to go up there either way, but when he got the call and invitation, he was pretty happy,’’ his father, Gene Hansbrough, said this morning.

I have been on record as saying that I didn’t see Tyler Hansbrough going any higher than late teens, and would not be surprised to see him going in the 20’s. I might have to change that and say he could definitely be going in the low to mid teens, with the possibility of sliding to the 20th spot. Again, as I have always said, the draft (anyone, not just the NBA) is tricky after the first 2-3 spots, because a team that takes someone that no one expected, a trade, anything else, could make a Top 10 pick become one that isn’t called until after the lottery picks are done. On the other hand, this is not just whispers, this is something that many people “in the know” are believing, and that means it’s because teams are saying Hansbrough’s name more and more.

From the internet it’s being said that joining Hansbrough in the “Green Room” will be his team mate at UNC, Ty Lawson. Plus there will be another two big names from North Carolina based schools: Gerald Henderson (Duke) and Stephen Curry (Davidson). Lawson is expected to be a mid teen pick, while the other two guards both seem to be Top 10 picks.

Can’t wait to see how it all goes down this Thursday, for both the power forward, as well as the other three players from the national championship team from Chapel Hill. And as I do all the time, let me wish them once again all the best!