As I was watching Josh Smith hurdle Kenyon Martin this past weekend in the Sprite Rising Stars Dunk Contest, part of the NBA’s All-Star Weekend, I did the same things most people did.
I stared wide-eyed at the TV screen and pumped my fist several dozen times until Smith finally put away Amar Stoudemire with a ridiculous 360 windmill. At that point, like any true hardcore basketball fan, I lost it.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about one thing…
What was Jay Bilas thinking on June 24, the night the Hawks drafted Smith and brought some intrigue back to a franchise that has suffered through years and years of bad attendance rates and even worse teams?
When the Smyrna, Ga. native, just a month removed from graduating high school, heard his name called by commissioner David Stern and started making his way up to the stage, he could not have missed hearing ESPN’s Bilas make a comment that will almost surely wind up in an NBA trivia book years from now.
Bilas, within earshot of Smith, proclaimed Smith to be the player “most likely to bust” out of his draft class.
Apparently, not only did Bilas not realize that it’s extremely hard for a No. 17 overall pick to “bust” (becoming significantly less than what was expected of him) but he also must not have remembered that Rafael Araujo and Luke Jackson went just nine and seven picks earlier, respectively.
Smith, who just turned 19 last December, has responded to the criticism by averaging 8.1 points per game and 5.3 rebounds per game.
He also gets by on 47 percent shooting from the floor, but that’s not too hard for a guy who dunks 52 percent of his made shot attempts.
The clincher was last Saturday, when he made four dunks in four attempts, the only competitor to do so this year.
The Oak Hill Academy product registered three “perfect” dunks, judged by such legendary dunkers as Julius Erving and David Thompson.
Smith, now steadily becoming known as “J-Smoove,” paid homage to past greats by landing Erving’s famous free-throw line dunk, as well as throwing down a vintage Dominique Wilkens windmill-wearing Wilkens’s throwback jersey, no less.
Watching Smith resurrect the dunk contest and after seeing his 10-block display against Dallas earlier in the year (as a guard), there is little quibbling anymore as to whether or not Smith should have been a Top 10 draft pick.
And there can be no Harold Miner comparisons. Smith is a young kid who has demonstrated an incredible work ethic and a willingness to learn in his short time with the NBA. If Atlanta can develop him properly, they’ll be looking at a superstar.
Bust that, Bilas.
Not coincidentally, Josh Smith played in the Got Milk? Rookie Challenge, a game pitting the league’s best rookies against the best sophomores just one night prior.
On the opposing Sophomore team was Luke Ridnour, a player who Bilas said during the 2003 NBA Draft “couldn’t guard the chair I’m sitting in.”
The only thing that hasn’t busted yet is Bilas’s string of dreadful draftee predictions.