<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">As the boys' basketball coach at St. Joseph High in Metuchen, N.J., Mark Taylor had been through the NBA Draft once before with a former player, when Duke guard Jay Williams was taken No. 2 overall by the Chicago Bulls in 2002. That didn't make the call Taylor got Tuesday night on the car ride home from his son's Little League game any less incredible. Andrew Bynum, the 7-foot center who transferred to St. Joseph only two years earlier, had been selected by the Lakers at No. 10, transforming the little-known high school senior into the future of one of the NBA's marquee franchises. "I think a lot of people were surprised but the people close to him weren't surprised," Taylor said in a phone interview. "He just has so much potential. He's got an NBA body, he's got great hands." The two descriptions of Bynum most often repeated Wednesday were big and young. He is 7-feet tall, weighs 285 pounds and still could be growing, Taylor said. He also won't turn 18 until Oct. 27, only days before the start of the Lakers' season. Sean Baptiste, a junior shooting guard at St. Joseph, said he hadn't stopped smiling since Bynum's name was called Tuesday. He admitted he never would have thought Bynum someday would become an NBA star when they first played together. "I won't lie. When I first met Andrew, he wasn't much," said Baptiste, who frequently led St. Joseph in scoring even with Bynum around. "But he's unbelievable now. He took it to another level. He did everything he needed to do to get drafted." Taylor described Bynum as a "happy-go-lucky" kid who likes computers, talked about becoming an engineer and was an honor student. Bynum jokingly told reporters Tuesday in New York that he was "looking forward to the palm trees and Jack Nicholson." "He's not quite as funny as Shaq," Taylor said, "but he'll crack you up." Baptiste attended a draft-night party for Bynum in Princeton, N.J., where Bynum couldn't stop talking about playing for Phil Jackson and playing with Kobe Bryant. Bynum also admitted being a little nervous about the news conference he will be part of today. "He's like a teddy bear," Baptiste said. "He's just a great person off the court. He looks out for you if you're in trouble, he picks you up if you're down."</div> Source
