<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Last June's critics didn't expect such compliments to be lobbed Bargnani's way when the Raptors made him the first Euro ever taken at the top of the draft. At least not this soon. In spite of Dirk's dominance and the capable contributions of imports like Mehmet Okur and Boris Diaw, many incoming Euros suffer the indignity of being compared to high-lottery busts Darko Milicic and Nikoloz Tskitishvili. Twice-bitten scouts won't soon forget that, blinded by overseas hype, they once overlooked Bosh, Carmelo, D-Wade and Amar? for those two. So when Bargnani's name was the first one David Stern called, a common sentiment was, Who'd the Raptors leave on the table by banking on the next Euro-bust? The skeptics have been shamed. With a stroke as pure as bottled water, Bargnani is already one of the league's top sixth men and Brandon Roy's chief competition for Rookie of the Year honors. During the Raptors' surge to the top of the Atlantic, Bargnani averaged 13.5 ppg on 50% shooting in February. Fact is, not even his biggest supporters expected so much so soon. Before the season, if he hadn't done enough to earn a spot in the Rookie Challenge during All-Star Weekend, Raptors management wouldn't have been the least bit discouraged. But there he was in Vegas, foiling Andrew Bogut with a nasty scoop shot and earning raves from none other than the big German himself. Nowitzki, sitting in the bowels of the Thomas & Mack Center, first scoffed at the rush to compare the two: "Every tall, white shooter who comes over is going to be compared to me." But then he made the parallel himself. And he finds himself lacking. Dirk says that at 21, the newcomer is better than he was: "Sky's the limit for him." Another prodigy confirms it. "He's like a junior Dirk," LeBron says after Bargnani's 18-point, seven-rebound effort in a one-point loss to the Cavaliers in their first game after the break. "He's going to be a very, very, very impressive player in this league."</div> Big Rook
Nice find, Drunkballer. Even with all our success, watching his development has been the most intriguing part of this season. I found this part of the article real interesting: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">For years, NBA teams have used the Caliper Profile to evaluate potential draft picks. The Caliper is a personality profile used by numerous corporations and organizations to measure one's capacity to excel in specific situations. Over the past 24 years, Caliper has assessed more than 20,000 athletes, including NBA players from Detroit, San Antonio, Denver and Phoenix. Colangelo has long been sold on the system. When he heard how Bargnani measured up, he nearly dropped the phone. "They said his upside and potential were off the charts," Colangelo says from the tunnel of the Air Canada Centre as Bargnani drains a three against the Cavaliers. "They said, 'Out of all the athletes we've profiled, we've never seen anything like this.' " The test showed that Bargnani is virtually oblivious to what others think of him. And his tremendous ability to block out such potentially negative pressures enables him to focus completely on the task at hand. So the expectations and anxieties that come with being the No.1 pick, or the only Italian-born player in the league, or even taking a game-winning shot, don't even register with him.</div> Colangelo kept mentioning that the psychological tests made a big difference in their draft choice, but I didn't really understand what he meant then.
