Kentucky Owns The First 2 Picks Of The NBA Draft; LeBron Almost Lost His Finals MVP Trophy

So how about that 1-2 Kentucky punch? Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist became the first teammates to ever go 1-2 in the NBA Draft and it wasn’t something many saw coming until the final minute. All the hubbub was about what Michael Jordan would do with No. 2. We mean, the Bobcats are so bad (qualifier: worst ever) they needed as many picks as possible, but they’re putting their faith into a big, strong wing defender who can throw down hard on you, too. The initials MKG were trending in the U.S. right after the bold pick. We hope it’s right because we liked him in Kentucky. … Of course, Davis was the pick everyone knew would go No. 1, and Monty Williams and the Hornets have to be psyched to get him in teal and purple for real. Davis served up this nugget to an interviewer before the pick: “Who doesn’t like money?” … All across the country college coaches are ripe with smugness right now about coach John Calipari‘s 1-2 sweep and four overall in the first round with Terrence Jones at 18 and Marquis Teague at 29. A title and now this for Calipari? We’d love to hear his recruiting pitch when he next steps in a living room. North Carolina had four also in the first round. … Dion Waiters did our draft diary this year, and we knew all along he’d be the No. 4 pick (kidding). The dude from the ‘Cuse had a huge jump by going to the Cavs and being the biggest surprise of the lottery. He joins Marvin Williams as the only lottery pick to never start for his college team, and by the reaction from Twitter you’d think he’d never played a minute at the D-I level. Wrong. Dude can ball and could blow up in Cleveland alongside Kyrie Irving. Another backcourt that will be fun to watch? John Wall and Bradley Beal in Washington. … Congrats to Mr. Irrelevant, Robert Sacre of Gonzaga. The last pick in the whole thing gets a chance to break in with the Lakers and pick up some wisdom from Metta World Peace. Mitch Kupchak‘s already on the phone with him saying, “Do whatever Kobe wants.” … Also we really like Thomas Robinson and DeMarcus Cousins ripping down every offensive board together in Sacramento. … How pissed must Arnett Moultrie have been when champion Miami traded him? And how stoked must Justin Hamilton have been to become a Heatle? … One of the best crowd reaction of the night was to Ilkan Karaman‘s selection by the Brooklyn Nets. The 10-year-old they focused on looked totally puzzled, then whooped it up with a fist pump that would have made the old Jersey fans proud. Related: How bizarre is it to see the Nets’ logo in all black? We thought it was the Raiders for a few seconds. Don’t miss all of our thoughts on the picks right here. … Hit the jump to read about Mark Jackson‘s woes in the Bay Area …

Whatever you think of the Warriors’ draft of Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli, Draymond Green and something called Ognjen Kuzmic, it was not a good day for coach Mark Jackson. He was reported to be the target of an extortion attempt from an ex-stripper he was having an affair with six years ago. She and an accomplice had phone recordings of messages he left and explicit photos of him as the blackmail. After he paid off one attempt, they supposedly came back for more and then he went to the FBI. The Warriors, his wife and four kids, and now everyone else are aware of the investigation. Bad, bad stuff in the Bay Area. What makes it worse? Apparently Jackson and his wife are co-pastors of an L.A. church, too. … You thought we were done with LeBron for a while, but here’s two awesome news bits since the title: He almost lost his Finals MVP trophy already; and he took a photo with a couple on their wedding day. Yeah, he just obliged when they asked him after spotting him in their Miami hotel. Even better was how immediately after getting the Finals MVP trophy after Game 5, he thought he’d lost it. Among the wave of title hats, Team No Sleep shirts, Juwan Howard telling everyone they’d won it for the Fab Five and Chris Bosh drowning himself in bubbly, LeBron was panicked. No one took his trophy like he feared, not that it would have mattered. After the playoff run we’d have remembered who dominated it, trophy or not. … Other news we expected since the Finals’ Game 5 clincher came to fruition Thursday when Dwyane Wade pulled out of consideration for the Olympic team. He’ll have knee surgery. … For all of Calipari’s recruiting gold, Delonte West was going harder this week on Twitter. His target: Deron Williams. West’s pitch included: “Real talk…I know it’s a Lil more mOney over der but u home here” and “we can win the weastern conference no problem.” Solid. Gold … If you’re a video game fan like us your top game is probably a hoops title. So what was music to our ears was that 2K Sports is dropping NBA 2K13 Dynasty Edition on Oct. 2. You get a ball, Skullcandy earbuds and a skin for your XBox controller along with an All-Star add on for the game. That last part alone has us very intrigued. … We’re out like Calipari’s recruiting pitch.