Onumba.com, USA – Before the NBA annual draft yesterday, there were endless effluvium of mock drafts, with basketball buffs eating it all up as speculations went into overdrive over whether Duke University’s pollux Jahlil Okafor would be drafted No. 1 overall.
It was for the most part a toss-up between star centers Okafor and the University of Kentucky Karl Anthony-Towns, with Ohio State University’s ace guard D’angelo Russell in the conversation and rounding out the triptych of the coveted players largely favored to go first in the star studded draft.
As the draft day approached, however, Anthony-Towns surged past Okafor as the favorite to be called first as the top draft pick. And sure enough, he was selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves as the No. 1 overall draft pick.
Before the draft, several analysts had speculated that if Anthony-Towns went to Minnesota, then the Lakers would most definitely snatch up Okafor and make him the post Kobe Bryant era franchise player. And Okafor was agog about that, even gleefully saying a few days before the draft that he was ready to “go to the Lakers and learn from Kobe,” the aging Lakers super star who is, according to him, calling it an NBA career after next season.
Well, that’s not going to happen. Instead, Okafor is heading to the Philadelphia Sixers, which took him with their third pick, and where he will join a bevy of other star centers that include Nerlins Noel and Joel Embid. Embid seemed thrilled about it, tweeting moments after the Sixers drafted Okafor, “Aye my boy is in philly with me.”
“See you in Philly,” added Embid.
So Okafor is going to be a Sixer, obviously, barring any trade. But exactly how having three potentially very good centers is going to work out in Philly is now the monumental question, one that Okafor is not going to concern himself with.
“It’s not my job to figure it out,” Okafor said. “I’ll just go there and work as hard as I can.”
With his mind previously set on being a Laker, and now that’s not going to happen, how is Okafor handling both the tectonic shift and the stunning tumble from being one of the top two picks?
“I wasn’t shocked,” Okafor said of being drafted by the Sixers. “I knew I was going to be going to the NBA tonight. I was going to be a top-five pick no matter what happened, so I wasn’t shocked.”
Everybody else was gobsmacked, though. It is all water under the bridge now. But Okafor was absolutely right. The 19 year old son of a Nigerian immigrant is now in the NBA, iron-clad set to be soon swept up by a mudslide of money.
As for Okafor and Embid coexisting peacefully and loving each other in the city of brotherly love, it is actually a huge plus for the team that is badly in need of an massive revamp. The architects of Philly rebuilding project now have a unique chance to install a potentially impressive replica of the 80’s twin towers that unleashed the formidable brilliance of centers and No. 1 picks Hakeem Olajuwon (1984) and Ralph Sampson (1983) for the Rudy Tomjanovich’s Houston Rockets that terrorized the NBA in that era.
Interestingly, Okafor is thinking along those lines too when he was asked to describe his feelings about playing alongside his friend Embid for the same position on the same team.
“It is going to be two 7-footers on the floor playing basketball,” Okafor said. “I don’t know what else to say. We both want to win. We are friends and I am looking forward to it. I am also cool with Nerlens.”
Okafor stressed the importance of winning, but also made clear other goals he has in mind to accomplish heading to a team few expected would draft him.
“I would like to be Rookie of the Year,” Okafor said when asked what his goals are for next season. “Making the All-Star game, helping the Philadelphia 76ers make the playoffs, and be a starter for a couple years — those are goals of mine.”
Okafor’s father Chukwudi is Nigerian-American. His mother Dacresha Lanett Benton is African-American and White.
