I'm going to start this article but I am not going to pretend I can follow it or understand it, but since everybody is talking 2008 NBA Draft, and people in LA are so proud of local kids doing good, let's break down UCLA's Kevin Love and USC's OJ Mayo and how they both went to sleep last night playing for their respected teams that drafted them but woke up this morning having been traded to other teams.So ignore all the draft day pictures from yesterday with their respected team hats. Never mind those jerseys and mom and dad's cheesy grins with team presidents. O.J. Mao and Kevin Love can trash those pictures because something went wrong in the Star Trek transporter room.
Fans are confused as well. Minnesota Timberwolves fans went to bed wondering how O.J. Mayo would fit in with their guard-heavy team. Memphis Grizzlies backers hit the hay hoping that Kevin Love would open things up for Rudy Gay in the front court.
Both groups woke up Friday morning to a totally different reality, thanks to an eight-player blockbuster trade in the wee hours of the night that changed the faces of both teams.
Hours after the draft concluded, the Wolves sent Mayo, forward Antoine Walker and guards Greg Buckner and Marko Jaric to Memphis for Love, shooter Mike Miller and frontcourt retreads Brian Cardinal and Jason Collins.
Timberwolves vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale said he thought the deal was dead early in the night, but the Grizzlies reopened negotiations as the first round came to a close, and Memphis finally relented and included Miller in the transaction.
"Actually no one was more surprised than we were when the deal came back," McHale said. "We were all sitting around there looking at each other saying, 'Wow, I guess it's back on.' There were just too many components in it that fit our needs not to do it."
See just what each team gets in this bizzar trade in the rest of JON KRAWCZYNSKI Washington Post story