TrueHoop draft re-cap

Henry Abbott and David Thorpe assess a night of honest emotion

Henry Abbott and David Thorpe go back and forth, re-capping what mattered from Thursday night’s 2019 NBA draft:

HENRY: NBA commissioner Adam Silver took the stage to kick off the first round of the NBA draft at the reasonable hour of 7 p.m. Eastern. But by the time deputy commissioner Mark Tatum called the 56th pick it was close to midnight. That’s about the time I walked through the Barclays Center section 23. This is not the glittering “green room” on the arena floor. These are the sloped seats of the lower bowl, set aside for prospects who were not invited as the NBA’s guests. They wanted to come anyway.

The arena was more than half empty by this late hour. This part of the stands was a collection of clumps, people sitting in threes or fours. Almost every clump included one uncommonly tall man. Only then did I realize how many people had flown themselves here—and were NOT having a great night. Once I got even closer, I could see the crazy stress on the faces of basically everyone. H…