#5. Relive Grantland’s Short On The Kings’ 2014 Draft Process
Back in 2014, the now-defunct Grantland was given access to the Sacramento Kings’ war room for that year’s NBA Draft. To refresh your memory, this was the draft where the Kings crowd-sourced a potion of their draft analysis, allowing a few knowledgeable fans to provide their input into who the Kings should pick. This was also the draft where the Kings drafted Nik Stauskas, leaving Doug McDermott, Jusuf Nurkic and Zach LaVine on the board.
In case you’ve never seen it, this was also the video that spawned the “Stauskas?” meme, made famous by Bill Simmons. To be perfectly honest, both that and the “Nik rocks!” moment are pretty embarrassing and deserve the infamy they’ve received. Beyond that, though, the video also provides a fairly fascinating and in-depth look into how a team conducted their draft process, insight the average fan almost never gets to see. It also illustrates the folly of an owner who gets too involved in the basketball operations. It’s a great, quick watch if you’ve never seen it, or just want to watch it again.
For the record, this was the second part of a two-part feature. The first part appears lost to time, long since deleted from Grantland’s YouTube channel. If anybody knows where Episode 1 can be located, I will be eternally grateful.