A professional draft, like the one that took place Thursday for the NBA, is an interesting thing for a college campus. It means very different things to different people.
At the top there’s the college’s resident, and departing, star athlete. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, in our case that would be Arron Afflalo. For him Thursday had to have been a little bit of a bittersweet thing. On one hand, he’s fulfilling the dream of pretty much every kid to ever pick up a basketball: he’s going to the league. Sweet. On the other hand, he’s leaving college. Just go ask any graduate how much fun that is. Bitter.
Of course, unlike most of the people who leave here, Afflalo has a guaranteed multiyear contract that will be paying him several million dollars since he sneaked into the end of the first round. So maybe his departure’s a little more sweet than bitter. Call it sweet and sour maybe; the poor guy does still have to move from Los Angeles to Detroit.
Then of course the draft day leaves the star’s old coach and teammates behind. At the top of that list are Darren Collison and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who are probably feeling pretty glad right now that they didn’t enter the draft and thus get to postpone the slightly-more-real-than-college world of the NBA for another year.
Then there’s Ben Howland, who if I had to guess, probably isn’t paying any attention to the draft other than to see where Afflalo’s going. Knowing him, he’s spending the time planning how he’s going to get his team to a third straight Final Four, and this time over the championship hump.
The plan probably doesn’t need to be very complicated. As long as item No. 1 on the list (“Don’t play Florida”) works out, everything else can more or less be recycled from last year.
And let’s not forget about the rest of us. A draft puts us at the awkward intersection of our college and professional sports loyalties. Sure, most of us Bruins probably want to keep rooting for Afflalo in the NBA, but what if we don’t like the Pistons? What if we’ve been die-hard Bulls fans since the ’80s and we’re going to be deep in the cold, cold ground before we root for anyone in a Detroit uniform? Fortunately for me, I don’t fit into that category. But some Bruin out there is probably facing a tough choice right now. Life-long pro loyalties or three years of player-specific memories? Hard to say.
Then there’s the reverse. What if you like the Wizards but all of a sudden you have to root for former-Trojan Nick Young every time Gilbert Arenas goes to the bench?
Usually I think the pro loyalties win out over time, but still, it’s not a great situation. Look at the NFL: I’m sure if I were a Cardinals fan I’d still have another two or three years of feeling dirty before I was comfortable with rooting for Matt Leinart as my QB. Actually, that’s a bad example. I don’t think there are any Cardinals fans left.
So I guess what a draft comes down to is time and choices. Arron Afflalo spent a lot of time working very hard at the game of basketball so he could choose to go to the NBA. The Detroit Pistons chose to take him on their team.
Now the rest of us need to choose whether or not the time we’ve spent rooting for him was enough for us to keep putting in that time now that he’s left Westwood.
It’s not just about school spirit anymore. It’s a personal choice, and now everyone gets to make his or her own decision.
Hmm. Go Pistons? Does that sound kind of weird to you?
Give it some time.
If you choose to spend your time responding to sportswriters, Lampros can be reached at nlampros@media.ucla.edu.