Can Danny?

After Chad Ford did a solid job predicting last year's NBA draft, I said I would leave him alone a bit. But a year has passed and this blurb from his latest chat has ruined any and all goodwill that he had going.

Jason (Framingham, MA): Hey, remember that 7'4" guy from like 5 years back that didn't have any real college experience? He just hired a trainer and an agent and hoped he would get drafted. Whatever happened to that guy?

Chad Ford: (12:47 PM ET ) You mean Pavel Podkolzine? The guy NBA teams went crazy over in a private workout in Chicago ... when you're 7-foot-4 and can tie your own shoe laces, NBA guys love that. The Jazz drafted him in the first round, the Mavs traded for him and then he had a series of surgeries to correct a pituitary gland problem he had. It kept him out of playing basketball for too long and he eventually went back to Russia. Pavel's a great example of a guy who had all the physical tools, but zero experience playing competitive basketball ... those guys don't pan out too often.

What Ford failed to mentioned was that nobody, and I mean NOBODY, was a bigger fan of Pavel than Chad Ford himself. For him to even try to get on a high horse about Pavel, or any international player, is simply ridiculous. He had Pavel ranked ahead of Dwyane Wade in 2003. When Andy Katz and he did a mock draft, Katz had Chris Bosh landing in Miami. Ford's response:

My head says Bosh could be a real star in a year or two. But my heart says Podkolzine here. Riley and company were blown away by his workout. The Heat will have him in late this week to test his knowledge of the game, ability to read game tape and his general intelligence. If he passes the test, I just don't know how the Heat could pass on the kid.

He was stunned when Pavel dropped out of the draft and in 2004 labeled him "the steal of the draft". Before the draft he wrote:

Emeka Okafor may be more battle tested. Dwight Howard is certainly more athletic and skilled at the same age. But there is no one in the draft with a bigger upside than Pavel. At 7-foot-5 and 300 pounds (his measurements in Treviso), Pavel has the potential to dominate physically in the league some day. He is huge, strong, fairly athletic for a player his size and bursting with energy.

And it's not like Pavel was the only guy that Chad Ford fell in love with. Ford was gaga over Martynas Andriuskevicius for years, routinely called him a top 5 pick, and, after Andriuskevicius dropped out of the 2004 draft, Ford stated:

Instead, look for Andriuskevicius, if he continues to develop, to challenge Nemanja Aleksandrov for the No. 1 pick in the draft next year.

Good call. Andriuskevicius was a second round pick and Aleksandrov's draft hopes are now described (by noneother than Chad Ford) as "Second round to undrafted" And let's not forget Maciej Lampe. After the draft, Ford complimented the Knicks, stating:

But landing the other guy you thought about taking at No. 9, Maciej Lampe, was a huge draft steal. I've seen Lampe play enough to know that his slide wasn't warranted. Lots of teams dropped the ball on him. If he can work out his contract issues with Real Madrid, he'll make Knicks fans happy.

As for the Heat's pick in that draft?

It's tough to criticize Pat Riley for passing on Lampe when 24 other teams did the same thing.

Actually, it's tough to criticize Pat Riley because he draft Dwyane Wade.

I don't mind Chad Ford hyping guys to obscene levels (like giving the Mavs an A for their draft in 2002 for draftin Mladen Sekularac, whom "The Mavs will leave him in Yugoslavia for a year, but you'll hear his name again.") but to then act like he never did this is simply ridiculous. Thankfully, this year's draft doesn't have many top rated foreigners but I'm sure that Ford will find someone to hype up into the first round.