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The NBA Draft is upon us, so much so that my e-mail inbox is getting carpet bombed by the NBA. Today there will be media availability to specific players, at the Westin, in Times Square. I went to this last year, it's pointless if you've talked to these guys before because you get the same canned answers. Last year my flight got into New York late, had to deal with traffic getting into Brooklyn, then checking in, and then getting my butt down to Times Square. I don't even remember doing a write up about it after because the only guy I got a chance to really speak with was Michael Carter-Williams.
This season the attendees will be:
- Aaron Gordon
- Adriean Payne
- Andrew Wiggins
- Dante Exum
- Dario Saric
- Doug McDermott
- Elfrid Payton
- Gary Harris
- Jabari Parker
- James Young
- Julius Randle
- Jusuf Nurkic
- Marcus Smart
- Nik Stauskas
- Noah Vonleh
- Rodney Hood
- T.J. Warren
- Tyler Ennis
- Zach LaVine
- and Shabazz Napier.
Noticeable through his absence will be Joel Embiid. The only other big deal about this event is that it is FILLED with attractive young women in evening gowns prowling the hotel lobby and lounge who are obviously not there to make idle conversation with reporters, but instead there to try to draft a young, future NBA millionaire for themselves.
Out of the five SB Nation people covering the draft with NBA approved media credentials, none of us are going to be covering this event.