NEW YORK -- One of them showed up with floppy hair and eyebrows as thick as his accent, then left with a camera crew filming his every move as he explored the city. The other came in with sort of a half-fade, half-Mohawk thing going on and left about a half hour later than he wanted to.
"How long do I have to do this?" Brandon Jennings said Wednesday as he sat down for pre-draft media interviews in the ballroom of a luxury Times Square hotel.
One thing Jennings does not lack is confidence. Quietly, Ricky Rubio has it, too. Asked to respond to Jennings' recent comment that Rubio is "all hype," the 18-year-old Spaniard didn't blink.
"I don't listen to people who say, 'You want to be on the top,' or, 'You're all hype,'" Rubio said. "I don't care. They're going to see what I do on the court. I talk on the court."
• NBA Draft home | Mock draftsBy the time you read this, the time for the talk to end will be only hours away. The NBA Draft is Thursday night, and how strange it is that these two kids -- neither with a college education, one born an ocean away and the other one having crossed that ocean for his apprenticeship -- hold the keys to the whole thing.
Rubio, the point guard sensation, is the fulcrum for the domino effect that will cascade through the top of the first round once the Clippers make it official and select Blake Griffin with the No. 1 pick. Does Memphis take Rubio? Oklahoma City? Sacramento, the only team he worked out for? Can Minnesota get him with the fifth pick, or will it have to combine the fifth and sixth to move up?
And as Rubio admitted Wednesday, it's not only about where he gets picked, but whether he comes to the NBA at all. His buyout with DKV Joventut was being finalized in the hours leading up to the draft, and Rubio said Wednesday he would need to be slotted high enough in the rookie pay scale to have the money to pay for his release. The buyout likely will be reduced from $6.6 million to about $4 million -- only $500,000 of which can be paid by his future NBA team.
"If I'm in the top position, I can get my buyout," Rubio said. "We don't know yet what happens. I don't know the [pick] number, exactly. When some team picks me, I'm going to see the balance -- if I come here, if I will be OK or not."
The difference between the second pick (Memphis) and eighth pick (Knicks, for the sake of argument) is staggering. According to the NBA's rookie salary scale, the No. 2 pick would get two guaranteed years totaling $7.7 million -- enough to pay the buyout and have some left over. If he's picked eighth, he'd get $4.3 million over two years. The $300,000 remaining would be enough for most of us, but not for a professional basketball player.
Although he didn't specify how high he'd need to be picked to make it work, Rubio did float the notion that he'd be willing to play for nothing in his rookie season if he had to. If you take him literally, that means he'd accept going no lower than No. 3 to Oklahoma City; a $3.4 million first-year salary plus the team's contribution would take care of the buyout.
"If I have to pay all the buyout and I don't get money my first year, I don't care," Rubio said. "I want to play in the best league in the world and I want to get this experience."
It's the same experience that Jennings wanted -- they just went about it a different way.
Jennings famously skipped college and went straight from Oak Hill Academy to play professionally in Italy. The NCAA's eligibility rules -- stuff like SATs -- and the NBA's guidelines requiring players to be at least 19 years old and one year removed from high school conspired to send Jennings to Rome instead of the University of Arizona. He made $1.2 million playing for Lottomatica Virtus Roma, which apparently means, "Sit your ass on the bench." Jennings played less than 20 minutes per game, an experience he called "humbling."
"The only thing I probably lacked was the media coverage, getting the publicity that the college players get," Jennings said. "From what I've been hearing from some of the [NBA] coaches, they love my decision-making off the pick-and-roll, how I read situations, and I think my shot has improved a lot."
But what of his career decision? Like Rubio, Jennings' fate Thursday night carries a lot of weight behind it. In a way, it'll be a referendum on the decision to go Euro rather than to U-of-fill-in-the-blank.
"If I'm a top-five pick, for sure then it was the best decision," Jennings said. "And even top 10. But I think top five would really stand out."
Neither appears to be in the cards. Those who have seen Jennings play in high school and in Europe like his game; one such person raved to me Wednesday about Jennings' talent and said he'll be "fine" as an NBA point guard. But he happened to come out in a point guard-heavy draft that team executives agree is the most difficult to predict in years. After Rubio, there's a long list of college-tested, championship-level point guards more enticing than Jennings. Stephen Curry, Jonny Flynn, Tyreke Evans and Ty Lawson were winners in college. Jennings toured the Roman Coliseum, but about 2,000 years after anything was contested in it.
So if he isn't a top-10 pick, was Jennings' European vacation a bust?
"No, because I did get that year under my belt playing professional basketball," Jennings said. "... I'm sure I would get a lot of heat from the media. I'm sure a lot of people would be thinking, 'Well, you saw what happened to Jennings, so you probably don't want to do the overseas thing.' So I'm sure there will be a lot of negatives behind it, but I'll be ready for it."
Jeremy Tyler better be ready, too. Seeing the route that Jennings took, Tyler, 17, decided to one-up him by leaving San Diego High School after his junior season to play professionally in Europe. He'd have to play there for two years before being NBA Draft-eligible.
"I think what he's doing is better than what I did," Jennings said. "He just said, 'Forget senior year, I'm going overseas.' I think if he goes over there for two years, I think he'll be the No. 1 pick when he comes out, for sure. I guarantee that."
One thing Jennings will learn about the NBA: The only thing that's guaranteed is the money.
