He withdrew his name from consideration about 2hrs before the deadline today, according to Insider. No team gave him a guarantee, despite no one believing he would fall out of the top 10. He will try again next year. This changes everything.
I've heard that if he does what he says he is going to do, go over seas to get better and stronger, then he could possibly be the number one overall pick in next year's draft.
Awh gotta respect the man for this one. I love these foreign players. heres the link http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/story?id=1570460
Good news: Podkolzine pulled out of the NBA draft If he had entered the draft this year we would have heard endless Yao - Pavel comparisons (one less annoyance in the coming year) Hopefully Yao can now become Yao: Raptors were interested in Russian center with No. 4 pick Posted: Thursday June 19, 2003 7:42 PM NEW YORK (AP) -- Mammoth Russian center Pavel Podkolzine told NBA teams that he's pulling out of the draft after he was unable to get a firm commitment of where he would be selected. Podkolzine also was recently diagnosed with having acromegaly, a growth hormone secreting pituitary adenoma. The problem, doctors informed him, could be corrected with minor surgery. "Pavel's pulled out of the draft," Toronto Raptors assistant general manager Bob Zuffelato said Thursday. The Raptors, who have the No. 4 pick in the June 26 draft, had recently worked out and expressed interest in Podkolzine, in part because of his 7-foot-4, 303-pound frame. Podkolzine also worked out for the Utah Jazz on Wednesday. Podkolzine was not available for comment. His agent, Los Angeles-based Justin Zanik, did not return messages left by The Associated Press. Texas Tech's Andre Emmett, Saint Joseph's Jameer Nelson and former Michigan State forward Erazem Lorbek also pulled out of the draft Thursday. Lorbek will play in Europe rather than return to school because he signed with an agent. Ndudi Ebi, a 6-foot-9, 195-pound forward from Houston's Westbury Christian High School, confirmed he is staying in the draft. He had signed a letter-of-intent with Arizona. Podkolzine, in an interview with ESPN.com, said his decision to withdraw was based on teams unwilling to commit to taking him in the top 10. He said he would return to Italy, where he spent that last two seasons playing competitively, to improve his game. His recent diagnosis also was a contributing factor to the decision. It's been quite a turn of events for a player who came out of relative obscurity to become touted as a potential lottery selection after he turned heads at the NBA's pre-draft camp in Chicago earlier this month. Despite the increased attention, several questions remained as to whether Podkolzine was ready to make the jump to the professional level. Podkolzine, who doesn't turn 19 until next January, is young. And he's also inexperienced. He grew up in the Western Siberian city of Novosibirsk and saw limited action in Italy, including a 10-game stint last season with Metis Varese of the Italian Elite League. Zuffelato said the Raptors were still interested in selecting Podkolzine, but aren't affected by his decision to pull out of the draft. "That doesn't deter us from getting a good pick," Zuffelato said. "We're not devastated by it. But it was one of the options that we had that's not there now."
just because something has a remote relation to yao doesn't mean it belongs in the GARM forum. why does it seem like this is happening more and more often. threads like this make me remember why i stopped coming to the GARM forum for awhile.
Why is this a good news for Yao? Yao probably would like playing against a player with similar height of him.
If anything, I would say that this is bad for the Rockets. It weakens the pool of players in this year's draft in which we only have a very low second rounder. If we had another lottery pick, great, I wouldn't care. However, this means that we'll probably end up losing out on a better player.
We have a mid 2nd round pick, I can't imagime much of a difference, besides this draft has nothing to offer outside of the first round
All I'm saying is that it diminishes the talent in the draft, causing a better player that might fall to us not to. We took Mobley with a 40 something pick.
When he enters in next years draft, where we'll probably have a 15th or 16th, he will push a player to us that we may have otherwise not had a chance at.
I was wishing that we could draft this guy. And then we could finally have the real twin towers. Not this Sampson, Hakeem. Or David Robinson, Tim Duncan crap. Just 15 feet of real shot blocking power.
This alone is a reason for caution. A player that is tall/big due to an abnormal growth, is a warring sign that he wont be able to endure the rigors of the NBA; longevity. Remember, Yao is tall because naturally big (parents). Not because of an abnormal growth (like Gheorghe Muresan).
He made the right decision. He has great potential but he wasn't ready. Next year, he can be #1 if he improves and gets stronger.
