So it's spring 2003. The Miami Heat are tanking and look awful. The top 4 picks in the draft are expected to be great .... followed by a HUGE dropoff.
Unanimously everyone expects the NBA draft to go:
1. Lebron James
2. Darko Milicic
3. Carmelo Anthony
4. Chris Bosh
This was looked at, at the time, as potentially one of the better drafts at the top 4 spots in a long time. Lebron was hyped like crazy. Darko was the most hyped Euro ever, and was expected to redefine his position. Melo had just won the NCAA tourney as a freshmen and the sky was the limit. Chris Bosh looked like he might be the next KG with his smooth moves and amazing agility for his height. Any of these guys was rated as a #1 overall pick in most other drafts. The problem was that after the stellar top 4, there was nothing else of real value.
The next group of players expected to go was a mixed bag with a super short PG, a big lumbering white center, another pg that everyone questioned and a undersized 2 guard. They all looked like a complete crap shoot, with a high probablity that a few if not all of them would be out of the league within a couple seasons.
Miami was in the hunt for the 4th spot in the draft and competing with Toronto. We were losing every night and so were they. But, during the final 2 weeks of the season we were playing Toronto twice. The loser of those games would lock up the 4th spot and Chris Bosh.
I was desperately rooting for Miami to lose those games; so were most people on the Miami Heat message board. We wanted Bosh.
Riley had no part of it. He had his team playing competitively while Toronto really did all they could to lose including sitting starters because of small "nicks".
Well, we won. I was pissed. The Heat message board and mock drafts were full of predictions of who we should take at #5. None were really sexy and it didn't appear any of them would develop into anything more than a decent role player. The consensus was that we would take the lumbering Center, Chris Kaman. A few mocks had us taking the short PG, TJ Ford. Others said we needed a PG but would go for the taller one, Kirk Heinrich.
At the end, Riley took the fast rising, undersized 2 guard. He had been projected to go somewhere in th #8-12 range but Riley reached. Had we lost to Toronto we would have taken Bosh FOR SURE. He looks great and I'm sure we would be happy. But instead we now have that undersized 2 guard -
DWAYNE WADE!!!!!!
The point of all this is don't get too caught up with what player will go where because you really never know. Had we lost to Toronto, I can guarantee we wouldn't have Wade today. Hopefully wherever we pick in the upcoming draft, Saban will find the Dolphins' Wade.
