NBA Draft: Bogut Letting Skeptics Talk to the Hand

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Andrew Bogut blew through town the other day to tie up some loose ends at the University of Utah. He held a brief news conference that shed little light on what's really rumbling around inside his head just more than a week before the NBA draft.
On an otherwise vacant concourse in the Huntsman Center, Bogut sat and answered questions in a quiet, not unpleasant, yeah-right-whatever tone, one that could have been taken or mistaken for indifference or reticence or arrogance, only because it likely was one of the three.
It could have been something else, though.
It could have been that Bogut has placed himself in a bubble, to insulate and isolate himself from the ridiculous process of being alternately probed and praised, dissected and disrespected by those whose responsibility it is to size him up like a Berkshire hog and decide whether he deserves the blue ribbon.
Maybe he's grown numb, internalizing all of the considerations, ramifications, evaluations, and accusations in regard to the dimensions of a professional fate that is hurtling toward him,
the throttle now fully open. He stands on the brink of becoming one of the top two picks in the draft - either by Milwaukee or Atlanta.
He says he has no clue which team will take him.
He says it doesn't matter.
He says he's just excited about playing in the NBA.
What he doesn't say is much more compelling.
He leaves it for us to read between the lines that he's weary of responding - at least with words - to skeptics who, despite what he's already shown on the court, think he might be unworthy of the top pick in the draft on account of:
a) a lack of lateral quickness.
a lack of overall speed.
c) a lack of athleticism.
d) a short upside.
e) a degenerative eye condition.
f) a less than perfect relationship with his former college coach Rick Majerus.
g) an underwhelming scouting report about him given by Majerus to his friends who own and run the Bucks.
h) a rumor that he is "soft."
The speed and quickness problems are documented to the extent that Bogut, according to published reports, did not exactly soar through his NBA combine drills, moving some to classify him as a big stiff whose languid movements will be quickly exposed, especially on defense. The 7-foot center did, however, score well on verticality tests.
"I am athletic," says Bogut. "I'll be more athletic [in the NBA] than I was [at Utah]. A lot of people say I'm not athletic. Here, I did what Coach Giacoletti asked me to do."
Some observers believe Bogut already is as good as he's going to get. They like his savvy, his passing, his rebounding, but they conclude he has filled the measure of his limited potential.
Bogut calls BS on that. </div>

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