Gay! Gay! Gay!

This probably was inevitable:

League sources confirmed to ESPN.com that Toronto is considering [Rudy] Gay at No. 1. This would certainly shock the draft, since Gay has been considered a lock to drop over the past few weeks.
Sources close to the situation said Gay worked out exceptionally well in Toronto, had a clean medical report, has the prototype NBA body for a small forward, is an "outstanding individual" and is considered a "safe pick.''
-Andy Katz, June 27, 2006, ESPN.com

Two weeks ago I was talking to some guy on the Metro about how amazed I was that Rudy Gay was being projected as the #7 or #8 pick in the draft. Given the propensity of NBA scouts to place value on meaningless workouts while totally ignoring player's game-time abilities, it was shocking that a physical specimen like Gay, a player who is the perfect basketball player on paper, was getting so little attention.
Scouts love guys like Gay. He's talented, has tremendous upside and looks like a basketball player. The only problem is, while playing at UConn Gay looked like he didn't care when he was on the court. Worse, when he did try, he didn't look all that great.
I was at the MCI Center during Connecticut's overtime win against Washington in the Sweet 16 this year and watched Gay pretty exclusively during the first half and most of the second. He jogged up the court, didn't move without the ball, never set picks, half-heartedly went up for rebounds and just seemed as if he was generally disinterested in what was going on.
Keep in mind, this was in the third round of the NCAA Tournament, on national television and came after there was growing sentiment that Gay didn't give good effort on the court. If Gay didn't give his all during an elimination game that also doubled as an audition for NBA scouts, why on Neptune would anybody think he would work hard after getting paid?
Players can change their work-ethic; it happens all the time. I'd be surprised if it happens with Rudy Gay though. Some guys have it and some guys don't. Gay looks like he doesn't have it.
It's amazing to me that NBA GMs refuse to acknowledge that a good player has to have the desire, as well as the talent. Maybe it's because talent is easy to quantify while desire can be faked. I'm sure Rudy Gay has been prepped and trained to impress in interviews with teams. But anybody duped by that should remember what Kwame Brown alledgedley told Michael Jordan after handling Tyson Chandler in a one-on-one game the day before the 2001 NBA Draft: "I promise you, if you draft me, you'l never regret it." One would think a player would bust his ass every day after making a statement like that. The only thing Brown busted was the 100 mph barrier. (By the way, I refuse to believe Kwame actually said that. Nothing that he has done during his time in the NBA has ever suggested he had that sort of moxie.)
The writing is on the wall with Rudy Gay. He is a safe pick because he looks the part. Too bad he doesn't act it too.
(By the way, this weekend I had been putting together a comprehensive NBA Draft preview, complete with a thorough list of the biggest busts and worst picks of the past 20 years (there is a difference), but then Black Sunday came and it was erased forever. It's probably for the best though, I seem to remember going on a lengthy tangent about Juwan Howard's $100 million contract that, for some reason, included multiple shots at Mr. Rogers.)

* Day two of my computer-less existence and I've come to a sobering conclusion: Without the diversion the internet provides, a full game of soccer practically becomes unbearable to watch. During the entire Brazil/Ghana game I was kicking myself for reading The Post cover-to-cover before 11 a.m. because without that reading material, I was left with absolutely nothing to do but sit and watch 22 men run up and down a field. Sure, I could have read a book, but reading a book requires full devotion to the page; whereas a paper-perusing is more casual and allows for frequent TV looks. Ronaldo's goal was sick and Ghana was in the game for much of the contest, but even with all the "excitement" (sarcastic quotation marks have never been this sarcastic), I found myself flipping to The Price Is Right nearly every 45 seconds. (Scarlett totally blew it, by the way. Of course the Tums cost more than the four-pack of butter. Do they not have grocery stores in the postbellum South, Scarlett?)