Bruised Egos: DeShaun Thomas Almost Joined List of Undrafted All-Americans
What were they thinking? They must not have taken a college course in deductive reasoning. Vander Blue (left Marquette with eligibility remaining), Myck Kabongo (Texas), C.J. Leslie (North Carolina State), Marshawn Powell (Arkansas), Phil Pressey (Missouri), Adonis Thomas (Memphis) and B.J. Young (Arkansas) - potential All-Americans if they returned to school - were not among the chosen few in this year's NBA draft. Of course, the NBA is a difficult nut to crack. Even if they became All-Americans, there were no guarantees any of them would have been selected in 2014.
The NBA draft was reduced to seven rounds in 1985, three rounds in 1988 and to its present two rounds in 1989. Centers Bill Spivey of Kentucky and Sherman White of LIU, All-Americans in the early 1950s, went undrafted by the NBA allegedly because of possible repercussions stemming from a game-fixing scandal. A total of 21 All-Americans, including five in 2011, have gone undrafted by the NBA thus far in the 21st Century.
Three years ago, Sherron Collins (Kansas) and Scottie Reynolds (Villanova) became the initial NCAA consensus first-team All-Americans not to be selected in the NBA draft. Ohio State junior forward DeShaun Thomas (picked 58th overall by the San Antonio Spurs) narrowly avoided joining the following alphabetical list of All-Americans who weren't selected in the NBA draft:
*NCAA consensus first-team All-American.
**NCAA consensus second-team All-American.
NOTE: Bell, Booker, Collins, Hansbrough, Haslem, Jennings, Jones, Lucas, McNeal, Ray, Sanchez and Smith went on to play in the NBA after signing as free agents. Pratt played in the ABA.