Spanish basketball once again played a leading role in the NBA college draw after Madrid power forward Usman Garuba, from Real Madrid, and Canarian power forward Santi Aldama, from the University of Loyola Maryland, were chosen in the first round. .
Garuba was chosen with the number 23 by the Houston Rockets, after their coach Paul Silas Jr. gave all the support to the team to achieve it.
After having also secured the young Turkish power forward Alperen Segundo, selected with number 16 by the Oklahoma City Thunder, who later transferred to the Texan team.
While the Utah Jazz seized Aldama’s services by selecting him with number 30, to later sell his rights to the Memphis Grizzlies, who in exchange gave him those of number 40 in the second round and two more future selections in the same round.
The Memphis team sees in Aldama the type of player they had with the presence of the Spanish brothers Pau and Marc Gasol.
Both Garuba, who is with the Spanish national team in Tokyo 2020, and Aldama, are part of the list of the 17 foreigners who were chosen during the draw -eight in the first round and nine in the second-, which was held last night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Along with Spain, Serbia also placed two representatives on the list, while 15 other countries, including the Dominican Republic, as the only Latin American, Portugal, which achieved a representative for the first time in the history of the NBA, and Australia that had the highest selection of foreigners with point guard Josh Giddey, they made the final list of the 60 chosen.
Giddey, an entertainer with the ball in his hands, was picked number seven in the first round by the Thunder.
He would be followed by Congolese guard Jonathan Kuminga, who plays in the Development League, and was chosen number seven by the Golden State Warriors.
While the German forward Franz Wagner, trained at the University of Michigan, came to the Orlando Magic with number eight.
The Dominican Duarte, a guard that is already beginning to be compared as the future Klay Thompson, was selected by the Indiana Pacers with number 13, which prevented him from reaching the Warriors, who had him on their list with number 14.
Duarte, 24, is a University of Oregon-trained player who can score from any position and has excellent basketball fundamentals.
Another tall man, power forward Kai Jones of the Bahamas, was voted No. 21 by the New York Knicks, who later transferred their rights to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Then the teams of Garuba and Aldama would arrive, with which the foreign representation was closed in the first round.
The second had Lithuanian point guard Rokas Jokubaitis, from Zalgiris Kaunas, as the first foreign player to be selected, obtained by the Thunder, who later transferred him to the Knicks.
Five spots behind, the Sacramento Kings made history for the coach, with No. 39 center Neemias Queta, trained with Utah State University.
The Boston Celtics also decided on a guard-guard, Juhann Begarin, of Guadalupe, with the number 45, while the Toronto Raptors stayed with Canadian forward Dalano Banton, trained in the Nebraska university program, who was selected with the number 46.
Serbian power forward Filip Petrusev interested the Philadelphia Sixers who chose him with the number 50 as the foreign player of European type that their president of operations Daryl Morey likes so much.
In fact, the Sixers got number 53 to also Nigerian power forward Charles Bassey, trained at Western Kentucky University.
The Pacers followed up with another foreign player, Georgian-American power forward Sandro Mamukelashvili, a product of Seton Hall University, and closed the draw, at No. 60, by picking Greek forward Georgios Kalaitzakes, leaving Indiana with the largest number of foreign players -three- selected.
Followed by the Rockets who got two players, as did the Thunder, who had three, but then sent Alperen to the Houston team.
The second Serbian who was chosen was center Balsa Koprivica, the tallest player who was selected in the entire draw, formed with Florida State and that the Charlotte Hornets kept with number 57.
Ruben Mantilla
