The NBA Draft's Five Best Second Overall Picks Since 1984 & Sammy Sosa Is a Joke and He Does Not Deserve Induction into the HOF

The NBA Draft's Five Best Second Overall Picks Since 1984

The Los Angeles Clippers are expected to pick former Oklahoma Sooners star Blake Griffin Thursday with the first overall selection in the 2009 NBA Draft at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

However, there is not a consensus projection for the No. 2 pick and basketball analysts remain largely uncertain who the Memphis Grizzlies will choose tomorrow in Gotham.

In recognition of the NBA Draft, I have decided to rank the five most accomplished players selected second overall in the past quarter century.

1) Jason Kidd

Kidd, 36, attended the University of California and helped resurrect the Golden Bears dormant basketball program with his stellar play at the point guard position.

After being honored as a First Team All-American as a sophomore, Kidd declared for the NBA Draft and was selected 2nd overall by the Dallas Mavericks in 1994.

Unfortunately, the Bay Area native’s initial stint with the Mavericks didn’t materialize as most anticipated it would.

According to legend, singer Toni Braxton went to the Mavs team hotel to meet Kidd after a game.

However, instead of rendezvousing with Kidd, Braxton instead left with his Dallas teammate Jimmy Jackson and the two purportedly fornicated until the wee hours.

Subsequently, Kidd loathed Jackson and he demanded an escape from “Big D.”

Kidd, a 9-time All-Star and 6-time All-NBA nomination, was traded to the Phoenix Suns at the conclusion of the 1996 season and his career began to truly ascend in the desert.

After he played five remarkable years in “The Valley of the Sun,” Kidd was shipped to the swamps of New Jersey in 2001.

The tremendous playmaker immediately energized the Nets franchise and he was the vital ingredient that propelled New Jersey to consecutive NBA Finals appearances in both the 2002 and 2003 seasons.

Kidd, the second player in NBA history to average a triple-double for an entire postseason in 2007 and the only player in the annals of the league to record at least 15,000 points, 7,000 rebounds, and 10,000 assists in his career, has never been a child on the hardwood.

2) Gary Payton

After he was named a consensus All-American and featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine as the nation’s best college basketball player for Oregon State University in 1990, Payton was picked No. 2 in the NBA Draft by the Seattle SuperSonics.

“The Glove,” a 9-time NBA All-Star and 9-time All-NBA selection, is widely considered one of the greatest point guards in the history of basketball.

Payton, 40, was nominated to the NBA All-Defensive Team nine times and he is the only point guard to ever win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award.

The product of Oakland once said on FSN’s Best Damn Sports Show that he would accept $100 million to undergo a sex change and dominate the ranks of the WNBA.

The former Beavers standout was a spectacular talent that many basketball fans would pay to see perform again on any level and as any gender.

3) Alonzo Mourning

The 6’ 10” Mourning literally and figuratively dwarfed his foes on the collegiate hardwood as a player for the Georgetown University Hoyas before the Charlotte Hornets selected the powerful center with the second overall pick in the 1992 NBA Draft.

“Zo,” a 7-time All-Star and 2-time All-NBA selection, used to be an overpowering presence in the paint and he deservedly was twice named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in both the 1990 and 2000 seasons.

Mourning, 39, was forced to retire from the sport of basketball prematurely at the age of 33 when he was diagnosed with a life-threatening kidney disease in 2003.

“Zo” made a comeback after he underwent a kidney transplant and he was an important contributor to the Miami Heat’s 2006 championship team.

Alonzo Mourning is a rugged warrior and it was a pleasure to watch a man of his stature compete on the basketball court.

4) Kevin Durant

As an 18-year-old at the University of Texas, Durant overwhelmed his peers on the hardwood and he became the first freshman to receive the Naismith Award and the John R. Wooden award.

After his sensational freshman year, Durant, 20, declared himself eligible for the 2007 NBA Draft and he was chosen second overall by the Seattle SuperSonics.

Durant promptly won the 2007-08 Rookie of the Year Award and this past February he scored the most points (46) in the brief history of the Rookie vs. Sophomore Challenge.

Additionally, the basketball prodigy won the H-O-R-S-E competition at this year’s All-Star break.

It is fitting that Durant won the H-O-R-S-E competition this past winter because the native of D.C. may eventually trounce the competition in his field the way Secretariat once did his.

5) Marcus Camby

This pick may ultimately prove to be as popular as Perez Hilton at a Black Eyed Peas concert.

Nevertheless, despite the rampant injuries that have plagued his career, Marcus Camby has been a terrific professional basketball player.

After he captured the John R. Wooden Award and the Naismith College Player of the Year Award in 1995-96, the Toronto Raptors picked Camby with the second overall selection in the vaunted 1996 NBA Draft.

The native of Hartford, Connecticut made the NBA All-Rookie First Team and he was twice named to the NBA All-Defensive Team.

Camby, 35, has been a force in the paint playing both the center and power forward positions and his tenacity was justifiably rewarded when he won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2006-07.

“The Camby Man” has been a defensive nightmare since he made his debut and he deserves to complete this list.

*Honorable Mention- Sam Bowie

Bowie was selected second overall in the 1984 NBA Draft ahead of Hall of Famers Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and John Stockton.

A little levity, huh?!

*Needless to say, this article is based on opinion and I am confident that many will dispute my selections and rankings.

Nevertheless, I look forward to receiving feedback and the thoughts of my readers.

Sammy Sosa Is a Joke and He Does Not Deserve Induction into the HOF

The New York Times reported last week that former Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa was on a list of 103 players who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003.

Sosa, 40, a 7-time All-Star selection and 6-time Silver Slugger Award winner, helped revitalize the game of baseball in 1998 when he and fellow juicehead Mark McGwire pursued Roger Maris’ home run record.

“Slamming Sammy,” who won the 1998 NL MVP and ultimately broke Maris’ mark when he finished that season with 66 home runs, had long been rumored to have abused anabolic steroids during his playing career.

The native of the Dominican Republic is simply the latest name in a growing list of Major League Baseball superstars to be exposed publicly as a charlatan.

In July of 2002, Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly confronted Sosa at his Wrigley Field locker about his alleged usage of steroids and he asked the onetime “Windy City” icon to take a drug test to prove that his feats on the diamond were legitimate.

“You’ve said if baseball tests for steroids, you want to be first in line, right?” Reilly asked an unprepared Sosa.

“Yes,” replied the man who tallied 609 career home runs from 1989-2007.

“Well, why wait?” Reilly said.

According to Reilly, at this point he wrote down the name and phone number of a local LabCorp and he handed the information to Sosa.

Reilly then informed the 2000 Home Run Derby winner that the test could be conducted with either a blood or urine sample and the results of the examination would be returned within 10 days.

“Why wait to see what the players’ association will do?” Reilly continued. “Why not step up right now and be tested? You show everybody you are clean. It’ll lift a cloud off you and a cloud off the game. It’ll show the fans that all these great numbers you’re putting up are for real.”

The questions posed apparently chapped the 1998 Roberto Clemente Award winner’s ass and Reilly said “Sosa’s neck veins started to bulge.”

“Why are you telling me to do this?” questioned the muscleman who once looked as physically imposing as Flavor Flav when he made his professional debut with the Texas Rangers in 1989.

“You don’t tell me what to do,” Sosa persisted. “You’re not my father! Why do you tell me what to do? Are you trying to get me in trouble?”

Reilly says he then asked Sosa how he could get in trouble if he never did anything wrong.

“I don’t need to go nowhere,” Sosa yelled. “

”I’ll wait for the players’ association to decide what to do. If they make the decision (to test), I will be first in line.”

Reilly wanted to plead his case further. But, Sosa stepped forward and said “This interview is over! Over, motherfucker!”

Three years later in 2005 at a hearing before congress, Sosa mysteriously forgot how to speak the English language.

So, his attorney testified on his behalf and stated, “To be clear, I have never taken illegal performance enhancing drugs. I have never injected myself or had anyone inject me with anything. I have not broken the laws of the United States or the laws of the Dominican Republic. I have been tested as recently as 2004, and I am clean.”

Sosa, who was also caught cheating when he used a corked bat in a 2003 game, is a yellow weasel and he does not deserve to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

In a recent interview with ESPN Deportes, Sosa said he would “calmly wait” for his induction into the Hall of Fame.

Sosa will become eligible for induction in 2013.

One can only hope that Sosa “calmly” waits for a ticket to Cooperstown for the remainder of his life without ever seeing his dream realized.

The Hall’s motto is “Preserving History. Honoring Excellence. Connecting Generations.”

“History” should forget about Sammy Sosa.

Sammy Sosa would never have approached “excellence” without the benefits of synthetic testosterone.

For the health of the “American Pastime,” this rogue era should be erased and never connected to another generation.