Last Thursday the NBA Draft took place. I was especially interested in this draft because I'm from Cleveland and a lifelong Cavaliers fan, the embarrassed and betrayed organization that was "given" the first and fourth picks. Leading up to the draft I did some research on who the stars of the draft were and what the Cavs were thinking about doing with such a unique draft situation. I followed their front office and the local beat writers on Twitter. When the time came, it was no surprise they took Kyrie Irving with the first pick. Even though he played about as many games this year during his lone season at Duke as Rudy dressed for at Notre Dame, the general sporting public has known about him all year long, just as we knew about the Timberwolves pick of Derrick Williams at number two.
Then the draft just got hazy. The Jazz selected a guy I had never heard of two weeks ago. My own Cavs took a power forward from Canada who played one year at Texas that I had never heard of this whole college basketball season. Picks five, six, and seven sounded like international interns at the United Nations....Jonas Valanciunas, Jan Vesely, and Bismack Biyombo. As the picks proceeded to get even stranger and more unrecognizable, I started to think back at the drafts I grew up watching and how interested I was in each pick. Then I started wondering, based off of how much college and international basketball has change in the last ten years, if kids even follow the draft anymore. I then started to think about the vast differences between what interested my friends and I about sports as kids and teenagers compared to what might interest the current generation. Whether it was trading baseball cards, showcasing Starting Line-Ups in our rooms, researching card prices in Beckett's or writing handwritten letters to our favorite team's front offices in hopes of an athlete's autograph, the state of a sports crazed kid/teenager has changed more in the last 10 years than ever before.
Look at the first ten picks of the 1992 NBA Draft...
1) Shaquille O'Neal - Junior
2) Alonzo Mourning - Senior
3) Christian Laettner - Senior
4) Jimmy Jackson - Junior
5) LaPhonso Ellis - Senior
6) Tom Gugliotta - Senior
7) Walt Williams - Senior
8) Todd Day - Senior
9) Clarence Weatherspoon -Senior
10) Adam Keefe - Senior
There were eight seniors taken in the first ten picks; the only other two were juniors. These college stars became household names before they ever put on a NBA jersey. Laettner was even a gold medalist with the Dream Team before ever arriving in Minnesota. Other names in the first round included Robert Horry, Harold Miner, Anthony Peeler, Doug Christie, Hubert Davis, Jon Berry, and Latrell Sprewell. I still remember where each of these players went to college and can even remember certain games they played and famous highlights during their collegiate careers. Compare that to having never heard of my favorite team's pick at number four until about a week before the draft. Much of the magic in events like the NBA draft is gone, which makes me wonder about the generation of sports fans that are growing up right now.
I treated each Beckett, a monthly publication that priced all trading cards, like a priest treats his bible. I knew exactly how much each card was worth. I knew what trades I could get away with on other friends in an effort to improve my collection. I regularly visited the local card shops researching prospective cards, only to collect enough money up to ride my bike to the card store to make such a significant financial commitment, with the same emotional connection and interest as a young couple picking out their first house. Do kids even buy, collect and trade cards anymore? I just had to Google "Beckett Magazine" to see if they are even in business anymore. They are, but I wonder if anyone even buys them anymore; might as well just Google the price of your cards.
I remember planning my entire Saturday mornings around making sure I caught Ahmad Rashad host the weekly installment of NBA Inside Stuff on NBC. To this day I still have VHS's tucked away that have special events such as the Dream Team's gold medal game and ceremony from 1992, Notre Dame games taped on NBC, and "Pistol" Pete Maravich instructional videos. What do kids nowadays do...just DVR and YouTube all of the great moments of their youth? My walls were line with posters and pennants, items I still have to this day. Do they even sell cool posters anymore? I'm nearly positive you can't go down to the local sports equipment shop and pick up an Aaron Rodgers cartoon pennant.
If the changes in following sports for kids has really changed as much as I assume it has, I'm glad I grew up before the internet, YouTube, iPhone apps and over-the-top video games with headsets connected to creepy strangers in Shanghai. I'm glad I treated my Dominique Wilkins card collection as serious as I treat my current 401K. I'm glad I had to run out to the the mailbox to see if a letter came back from the Cleveland Browns front office with a Bernie Kosar autograph instead of simply emailing them from an iPad. Things were simple for the paperboys admiring Babe Ruth in the 1920's, and just as simple for kids playing stick ball in the streets during the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's, when pretending they were Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, or Mickey Mantle . It wasn't very complicated in the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's when keeping an All-Star's rookie card hidden in your sock drawer had the same secrecy as a CIA agent hiding his extra passports. Unfortunately, things are much more diluted nowadays. The convenience and overwhelming fascination with technology has improved things for the entrepreneur, Wall Street investor and world traveler, but has taken away some of the innocence I remember from my childhood obsessing about sports figures, statistics, and collectibles. Besides, if kids aren't collecting cards anymore, who am I ever going to trick into trading for my Jose Canseco Topps rookie?
