At times, I wonder why every draft pick celebrates getting selected.
Of course, I understand why first-rounders who get picked higher than expected celebrate. They’re going to make more money.
And I get why players chosen late in draft celebrate. There was no guarantee they’d be picked at all.
But expected first-rounders selected in the first round and players who slipped? I understand it’s an important mark in their career, but they knew they’d get drafted anyway. The moment of selection doesn’t change much for them – with one exception.
When players are drafted, they learn which team they’ll play for.
However, nearly all players celebrate getting drafted, even when they’re picked by some of the NBA’s less-appealing teams. It’s almost as if the team doesn’t matter to them.
Want proof?
Rockets forward Chandler Parsons, who was a fringe first-round prospect and selected early in the second round of the 2011 draft, via Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle:
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It’s understandable Parsons was confused. The Rockets started the draft with the No. 38 pick, traded it to the Timberwolves and then bought it back to select Parsons.
But I don’t totally see the rationale for why Parsons was so excited at that moment.
I do, however, see why he’d be excited in hindsight to play for Houston rather than Minnesota.
