Insider: Old School Okafor

[Weez]

By Chad Ford

ESPN Insider

# Mock Lottery, Mock Draft: See 1,716 potential lottery scenarios

STORRS, Conn. -- Emeka Okafor is an endangered species.

There was a time when players like Okafor populated the whole NBA draft. They flourished throughout the American countryside, grazing on a college education during the day and huddling in cramped dormitories at night. All had hopes of making it big in the NBA after leading their college team to a national championship.

Okafor

Slowly, over the last two decades, NBA teams have picked off players like Okafor well before now. This year, a record 94 American and international underclassmen declared for the draft. Okafor was one of them.

In an era when every high school player who can win a slam-dunk contest and every international teenager standing 6-foot-11 or taller thinks he's ready for the NBA, Okafor is a rarity -- a college junior who has graduated (with honors, in finance), won a national championship, values both the game and his education, and who -- and here's the kicker -- actually is a great NBA prospect.

Everyone claims there is no LeBron James in this year's draft. Maybe that's not a bad thing. LeBron may be the future of the NBA, but Okafor is a flashback. A refreshing memory of what made the NBA special in the first place.

When the NBA draws ping-pong balls tonight at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN, one happy team is going to walk away with a vintage NBA No. 1 pick. The rest of the league will have to sort through the playground.

Old School

Emeka Okafor is in Storrs, Conn., packing away the last remnants of his college career. Wednesday morning, he'll be on a plane home to Houston to watch the draft lottery with his family. A few days after that, he'll be off to Los Angeles to begin working out in preparation for the draft.

For Okafor, the events of the next few weeks are the first signs his life is changing. Right now, his world bears little resemblance to most NBA top prospects. He doesn't have advisers, a posse, bling-bling or a new Hummer. In fact, for the last three years he didn't own a car, period. When he finally got one a few weeks ago, it was a Toyota Camry. He didn't hire a publicist in junior high. He doesn't sprinkle every sentence with product placements.

Emeka Okafor is a defensive specialist, but his offensive game improved each year in college.

The perks of being the best player in the world who's not in the NBA are coveted by some, but Okafor, for the most part, shrugs them off. Unlike so many top NBA players who seem to be identified while still in junior high, Okafor was a relative unknown when he came to UConn three years ago. He preferred it that way.

"I remember when I first came here I read a scouting report on UConn's incoming freshmen," he told Insider on Tuesday. "There was a lot in there about Ben Gordon and how great a player he was going to be. Under my name it said that Emeka was going to be a project and that his future was still up in the air. That made me work hard to prove people wrong."

Okafor had a lot to prove. In high school he weighed a scant 214 pounds. He was a good player but never made it to the elite All-American level. He was a raw shot-blocker who looked at basketball as way to get a college education -- not the other way around.

Unlike many kids these days, he did not form an NBA exploratory committee coming out of high school

"No way," he says laughing when I asked him if he ever considered declaring for the NBA straight out of high school. "You've got to be kidding me. It never crossed my mind."

What about after his freshman year, when he added 20 pounds of muscle and made the Big East All-Freshman team and the All-Big East third team? Didn't he start thinking NBA then?

"No, sir," Okafor said without hesitation. "Not at all. How could I? I had too much to learn here, on the basketball court and in the classroom."

What about after his sophomore year, when he was named Big East Defensive Player of the Year, All-Big East first team and led the country in blocked shots? By then, Okafor was projected as a likely mid-to-late lottery pick. Surely, the NBA crossed his mind then?

"No, chief," he said again laughing. "By then I could see the end in sight. I wanted to finish my degree and finish my career at UConn on the right note. When I looked at our team and who we had coming back, I felt that we'd have a chance to be very good."

Okafor's junior year was the crown jewel. He was named a first-team All-American, Big East Player of the Year and the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, where he lead UConn to a NCAA Championship.

Even then, Okafor hesitated a little bit before ultimately deciding it was time to go pro.

"I love school," Okafor said. "It was a great time. I was good at school, which made it easier. But playing basketball for a great school like this, I'm not sure it could get any better."

Asked what he learned in college, Okafor rattles off a laundry list of all the things NBA GMs claim are missing from this year's draft pool. When Okafor describes his own experience, he's literally writing a job description for a No. 1 pick.

"It bridged the gap from being a kid to being an adult," Okafor said. "Taught me responsibility. You're out on your own, but in college, at least, you still have a safety net. It gave me the time for me to mature socially, mentally, physically."

"On the court I learned the tricks of the trade. My body got a chance to get older and stronger. As far as the game goes, I learned a lot of aspects that I didn't know in high school. I paid attention on the court. I studied other positions. I tried to approach the game the same way I do a subject in the classroom. I don't just want to know about my position. I wanted to see the bigger picture."

You can take it to the bank that NBA GMs are seeing Okafor's picture as well.

The Big Jump

Normally, when an NBA GM talks about a draft prospect, he gets into long soliloquies on vertical jumps, wingspans, core strength and shooting form.

The Okafor Factor

Instant impact: Okafor is the only player in the draft who scouts believe could have a major, instant impact on the team that drafts him. Other players -- like Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, Devin Harris and Jameer Nelson -- also have a shot at stepping in and helping right away, but Okafor may be the only sure thing.

Big-game experience: Only three players with first-round potential have played in a Final Four. Okafor's teammate Gordon, Duke's Deng and Oklahoma State's Tony Allen. One international player, Russia's Sergei Monya, has played in two Euroleague Final Fours.

Maturity: At 21, Okafor is among the oldest first-round prospects in the draft. He's been a model student in the classroom, has a legendary work ethic and focus, has never encountered an ounce of trouble and should have no problem adjusting to the rigors of the NBA game.

Defense: He was the best college defender in the country. He's strong, rebounds well and led the nation in shot-blocking the past two seasons. Rookies who can defend are much more likely to earn playing time right away.

Size: Size matters when it comes to the draft. Almost every team is in need of a big guy who can step in and defend right away. While Okafor is undersized to play center -- he's 6-10 with shoes -- he's strong and athletic enough to play the five in the East.

With Okafor it's different. Every time.

"He's the most mature player in the draft," Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld told Insider when asked to describe the appeal of Okafor. Grunfeld's sentiments echoed the assessments of a dozen GMs Insider interviewed over the last few weeks. "He's a winner. He has terrific character. He's played in the big game and produced. There aren't many guys like that that come along anymore."

How important are those characteristics as opposed to say ... a jump shot?

"They're highly regarded by us," Grunfeld responded.

Right now the Wizards have a 15.9 percent chance of landing the first pick, and you've got to believe they'd love to have someone with Okafor's toughness, defensive ability and experience in their frontcourt.

Grunfeld knows a thing or two about the pitfalls of the draft. There's a kid on his roster, Kwame Brown, who is the same age as Okafor, but because of his decision to skip playing college ball at Florida, he's still looking for much of what Okafor seems to have found.

"You can do workouts, research, psych tests, background checks and athletic drills," Grunfeld said. "But what you can't see in the workout process is what kind of feel a player has for the game. The younger the player is, the more difficult it is to gauge that. With Okafor, we have a great feel for his feel."

Bulls GM John Paxson has a 20 percent shot at the No. 1 pick. He has two players Okafor's age on whom he's still waiting -- Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler. Last year Paxson went out of his way to find an experienced college player -- Kirk Hinrich -- and it paid off for the Bulls big time.

The appeal of Okafor to the Bulls is obvious.

"He seems real stable," Paxson said. "He has a good foundation. He's competitive, he's physical and the kid has improved every year. If a kid has improved that much, it means that he's spent time in the gym working. That's a great signal to us. You can have all the talent in the world, but you have to be willing to work -- to really want it -- to be successful in the league. I think Okafor has that going for him."

That alone might propel him to the be the Bulls' No. 1 pick, if they get the chance. While Paxson claims he hasn't ruled out anything this early in the process, given the Bulls' history with high school players, he admits it would be difficult to draft another one.

When informed of the scouting reports about himself, Okafor reacts in an unusual way.

"If people see that, great," Okafor said. "That's what I am. I work for everything I do. I'm a tough player. I'm going to work hard. My personality is to work as hard as I can to be the best. I can come in right away and do some damage right away."

That doesn't mean, however, that Okafor is a perfect No. 1 pick. The fact teams don't lead with what he does on the court is telling. That's mostly because Okafor is a defensive specialist. He's a tough, bruising, power player whose impact on the game -- at first, at least -- will be a lot closer to Ben Wallace than LeBron James. It's a tougher sell, frankly.

"He's obviously got a ways to go offensively," Paxson said. "But when you look at what's effective this late in the season, it's guys who can defend and rebound. His presence will be immediate. If you look at the roster of most lottery teams, they need guys like this."

Could Ben Wallace, knowing what we know now, have been a No. 1 pick. "Yes," Paxson said. "Teams need players who can do different things. What he brings to the table is just as important as a guy who scores 20 points a game."

The other thing to point out about Okafor is that, offensively, he has improved dramatically each year. This season, he averaged more than 18 points per game -- not too shabby in the Big East. A lot of people want to compare him to Wallace, but Alonzo Mourning, another undersized tough guy forged in the Big East, may be a more accurate comparison.

“ His presence will be immediate. If you look at the roster of most lottery teams, they need guys like this. ”

— Bulls GM John Paxson

Like Okafor, Mourning was an aggressive beast in the paint. He was known much more for defense than offense coming out of college. Before Okafor started suffering from back problems in March, he was averaging 20 points, 12 rebounds and 5 blocks. That's scarily reminiscent of Mourning's averages of 21.3 points, 10.7 rebounds and 5 blocks during his senior year at Georgetown.

But the most obvious likeness is the fact both players wanted to get dirty in the paint. In an era where 7-footers have become enamored with the 3-point shot, Okafor is cut from the old cloth, the kind that says big guys slap leather and flesh for a living.

The other big concern for Okafor is his health. He suffered a hairline fracture in his back in March and played through the pain most of the year. Bad backs scare the daylights out of every GM in the league. They're difficult to fix, and back problems have a tendency to reoccurr. Every GM to whom I spoke is concerned about it. Okafor and his agent, Jeff Schwartz, say it isn't a problem.

"The back is great," Okafor said when I asked him about it. Schwartz was more specific.

"He got a clean bill of health from the doctors here (at UConn)," Schwartz told Insider. "I know teams will want talk to the doctors and see for themselves, but at the end of the day, I think this is going to be a non-issue. Emeka doesn't have a bad back. He had an injury, and it's healed now."

While Okafor waits for the lottery gods to determine his fate, he remains humble about the process itself. He said he'd prefer not to be the No. 1 pick if it means going to a better situation later in the draft. Being No. 1 isn't what's important. Continuing to grow, learn and win are all that matters.

"It's going to be a learning curve, but I love to learn," Okafor said. "That's what I do. I know I'm not god's gift to basketball, but I do know that I'll do whatever it takes to make it work. That's why I think I'm going to be successful."

And that's why Okafor very likely will be the choice of whichever team wins the draft lottery.

Comments? E-mail Chad Ford here.