When I was a young Clark still at home with my parents, my mother hated basketball. Not the sport, really, but the fact that it never seemed to end, so I was always watching it. Of course, back then it was just hyperbole from someone who was having to battle with her son to watch Law and Order re-runs.

These days, it is absolutely true. Once the NBA season ends, the draft is right around the corner, and once that ends, free agency starts. Even if you don’t get in to the transaction intrigue, the WNBA puts basketball on the floor, and for those who hate women’s sports, there is still international basketball every other Summer (Olympics start in a couple of weeks!). There is also the NBA Summer League which is going on right now.

The NBA sponsors two week long basketball leagues that pits teams sponsored by NBA franchises against each other. Recent draft picks, young bench warmers, and minor league players hoping to draw the attention of scouts generally populate the rosters. For the Thunder, who compete in the Orlando Pro Summer League, the participating players were not even announced until the Saturday before the opener on Monday, so the number of practices the team got to build fluidity could have been counted on one hand…by a guy who had been in an industrial accident.

Play in these games is awful. Ball dominating point guards generally fare well since they look for their own shot and opposing defenses are discombobulated. Post players who rely on the guards sharing the ball tend to get few offensive opportunities and are left out to dry by poor perimeter defense. Despite all of this, every Summer people get overly excited about the results of these games.

Case in point. 

Potential is Spanish Fly for basketball fans. It as an aphrodisiac that lures those who love to game to believe that great things are on the horizon for a player. Like Spanish Fly, potential rarely works out.

Back in 2006, Patrick owned an Oklahoma City Hornet themed website and had a good relationship with The Sports Animal. As a result, he and I were occasionally invited to participate in their weekly show about the Hornets including a draft night special recapping the team’s performance.

To briefly rundown what did happen that night, the Hornets had two lottery picks where they selected two identical 6’10″ shot blocking power forwards (Hilton Armstrong from UConn and Cedric Simmons from NC State who I would derisively refer to as Hildric Simmstrong from that point on) then took a Brazillian small forward named Marcus Vinicius Viera de Souza (more succinctly referred to as “Marquinhos”) in the second round. As I called into the show for my segment, “Pork” was leading the show while giving the team general manager credit for taking two players who fit a team need and then just making fun of the Brazilian’s name. I saw it the other way around.

“Marquinhos was projected to be a lottery pick,” I told him. “Being able to draft him in the second round is a steal.”

“He has a skill set that few players possess,” I told him. “If he reaches his potential, there will be a lot of teams that regret passing on him.”

Six years later, the Oklahoma City Thunder selected Perry Jones III out of Baylor. He is a guy of which the same arguments were made, and now I’m on the other side. I have been burned once before.