Derek Bodner’s Blog

ESPN writers were recently asked Who are the best players 23 and under?, asking for their top 5 players under 23 who they would want to build a team around, as well as one wildcard. The anwers simply amaze me. If this is how low the standard is to become a professional sports columnist, perhaps I need to be working at it a little more.

First of all, three of the players receiving votes hadn’t yet stepped onto an NBA court (Greg Oden, Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley), two of which received top 5 votes. I can understand upside, but these are players who haven’t yet declared for the draft. I think we should probably wait until at least that time to declare them franchise players.

Second, some of the wild-card votes are astoundingly bad. Rajon Rondo and Joakim Noah over Al Horford, Al Jefferson, LaMarcus Aldridge? Are you kidding me? And they’re getting paid for this? Amazing.