THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260459
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO
LENGTH: 63 lines
The draft selections of today become the sneaker and soft drink pitchmen of tomorrow.
This is the shorthand explanation for the popularity of basketball in America.
Unlike those who follow the NFL draft, you don't have to be the sort of wonk who wears a chinstrap to bed to understand the appeal of tonight's livestock roundup.
For one thing, anyone with a casual interest in basketball might actually recognize most of the top picks in the NBA's made-for-TV draft show.
Those who follow college basketball very closely probably can even tell the best players by their tattoos.
The top prospects in tonight's draft are minor celebrities about to become major celebrities. And you can bet they won't report to their first day of training camp without first stopping by Madison Avenue for an assessment of their sales potential.
When it comes to visibility, college football players can't compare with their basketball peers. Most NFL first-round selections could walk through a shopping mall on Christmas Eve and not be bothered for an autograph, unless they ran into Mel Kiper Jr. coming out of the Gap.
Let Allen Iverson or Marcus Camby try that and watch the lines form. Iverson's car is more famous than most football draft picks.
With few exceptions, the armor worn by football players distances them from the public. Some of the linemen look like Coke machines in cleats, but almost every football player is hard to recognize without a program. With their helmets on, their own mothers or probation officers couldn't tell you who they are.
Basketball creates an intimacy with its fans that football never will, which is one reason why basketball players dominate the commercial scene.
More than any other athletes, basketball players speak the kids' language. They share the same attitudes, they sell what the kids are buying.
Speaking of kids, tonight's draft should be emceed by Captain Kangaroo.
Kobe Bryant, the high school phenom from Pennsylvania, is the most celebrated of a group that's going directly from the prom to the pros. Most likely, you've also heard of Jermaine O'Neal, the 6-foot-11 high school graduate from Columbia, S.C. But what about Taj McDavid from Palmetto (S.C.) High? What is his story?
Then there are Shareef Abdur-Rahim of California and Stephon Marbury of Georgia Tech, who gave up on college after one year.
Like them, many of tonight's draftees come well advertised. But the list of underclassmen entered in the draft also includes Chris Nurse, Willie Jackson, Richard Matienzo, Idris Lee and, Dut Mayar Madut, a 7-foot-4 sophomore from that basketball factory, Frank Phillips College.
And there are other names that sound like they've come out of the New York City cab drivers' registry: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Efthimis Retzias, Predrag Stojakovic and Vitaly Potapenko.
Don't listen to anybody on TV who tries to tell you that a player in this year's draft could become the next Michael Jordan. Or even the next Scottie Pippen or Shawn Kemp.
Besides, the kids in the mall - basketball's core constituency - will hardly acknowledge the comparisons. For them, it's enough if Iverson, Camby and Kobe Bryant become little Shaquille O'Neals, world-class self-promoters and video rappers.
As for the foreign imports, Zydrunas, Predrag, Vitaly and the rest, you never know. One of them may become the next Gheorghe Muresan. by CNB