The top 20 players selected by the NBA teams in Wednesdays draft are as follows:
1 Houston Yao Ming
2 Chicago Jay Williams
3 Golden State Mike Dunleavy Jr.
4 Memphis Drew Gooden
5 Denver Nikoloz Tskitishvili
6 Cleveland Dajuan Wagner
7 Denver Maybyner Hilario
8 LA Clippers Chris Wilcox
9 Phoenix Amare Stoudemire
10 Miami Caron Butler
11 Washington Jared Jeffries
12 LA Clippers Melvin Ely
13 Milwaukee Marcus Haislip
14 Indiana Frederick Jones
15 Houston Bostjan Nachbar
16 Golden State Jiri Welsch
17 Washington Juan Dixon
18 Utah Curtis Borchardt
19 Orlando Ryan Humphrey
20 LA Lakers Kareem Rush
China’s Yao Drafted No. 1 by Houston
NEW YORK – The biggest player, Yao Ming, went to the Houston Rockets. The biggest trade, involving Antonio McDyess, Marcus Camby and others, sent a former All-Star to the New York Knicks.
**The 7-foot-5 Yao, cleared by the Chinese national federation to play in the NBA only hours earlier, was selected first overall. It marked the first time a foreign player who did not play college ball in the United States went No. 1 in the draft. **
while…
Lakers Still Real Deal
Lakers: Three-time champions stay flexible by swapping with Raptors. They acquire Rush and Murray for Hunter and draft pick Jefferies.
The Lakers acquired the draft rights to Kareem Rush, a 6-foot-6 guard from Missouri, and veteran shooter Tracy Murray on Wednesday night in a deal that sent guard Lindsey Hunter and the rights to their own draft pick to the Toronto Raptors.
Murray, a 6-foot-7 small forward who will turn 31 in July, is a career 39.1% three-point shooter. He grew up in Glendora and attended Glendora High and UCLA.
“This is a dream come true,” Murray said. "My dream wasn’t accomplished until right now. Now, from here, let’s go get No. 4
Rush averaged 18.9 points in three seasons at Missouri. Asked why he made the deal, Laker General Manager Mithc Kupchak smiled and said, “Kareem. Kareem’s always been good to us here. We’ve been very fortunate with Kareems. With one Kareem, anyway.”
Rush’s younger brother, JaRon, once was a player with similar potential at UCLA.
“The name itself conjures up something because of the association here, with UCLA and basketball,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “This young man, we think we’re making a move in an experimental way, to find out if he’s going to fit with this basketball club, and if he has the ability to learn and to mature. There’s no better ground than right here, with this team, a group of veteran players…”
“We didn’t get everything covered,” Jackson said. “But we feel really comfortable with the fact that we’ve improved what we went out to improve, and that’s team speed in the backcourt and our overall team speed. We have some young players we think can develop in that area.”
** WORLD CHAMPION LAKERS
BLING BLING DYNASTY**
**“define QUESTION ((bb) | | !(bb))” — *Shakespeare ***
[This message has been edited by 5Abi (edited June 27, 2002).]