Opinion: A Plea for a More Informed MSU Fan

The NBA Draft has come and gone, and once again, I am reminded why I loathe sports from time to time.

I could spend more of my time talking about how gross I find mock drafts and that every single “source” mentioned by people such as Chad Ford are most likely lying. Something that Ford has joked about on Twitter, but I will not.

Instead, I will ask, no, I will implore my fellow MSU fans and Spartans to please do research before watching the Draft or giving an opinion on sports. The reason I ask this is because when it comes time to watch an event such as the Draft, we are often lured into seeing our hometown players as the best or often second best at their position.

Obviously, no one expected Gary Harris or Adreian Payne to be drafted No. 1 overall, but as I sat and watched the Draft and listened to people scream at the TV because they could not figure out why those two players kept falling, I had to wonder, why all the ruckus?

These teams are not dumb and there was no way Harris or Payne were going to fall out of the first round. Does it really matter to people where a MSU player gets drafted as long as he gets drafted?

Now I am aware that this is my second straight “who cares?” column, but this is not all about caring. This is also about being informed.

Let us take a look at who got drafted before our beloved Spartans. Excluding the top guys, there were some names taken before Harris and Payne that people got upset about. One was Nik Stauskas.

When I first saw that pick, my direct quote was “Puke.”

I fell into the same trap that many of my fellow Spartans fell into. “He’s not from here. Why does he get to go first?” The reason is because he is a more well rounded ball player than Harris or Payne. Stauskas can hit shots from the parking lot, but gets ignored for his excellent ability to go to the hoop and ball handle to create his own shots.

Another one that garnered my attention and many others was Joel Embiid. Now I am on record as saying that I would not touch that guy because big men with nagging injuries tend to end poorly (Greg Oden), but he is still a ridiculous physical specimen with an excellent upside.

Being from out of state, I was new to the term “Blue Wall.” This refers to the perceived bias for Michigan by some Detroit sports writers.

What I am trying to avoid is a “Green Wall,” where Michigan State fans devolve into a maize and blue fervor of claiming anything with a Spartan helmet or block “S” should deemed sacred.

I was going to write a column about this around the time of the NFL Draft when everyone was so upset that only one MSU player got drafted. There are reasons for this, my friends. Teams do not always take the best available player. They take the player that they think will help their organization win, whenever that might be.

So, all I ask is that when you watch the next rookie selection extravaganza from any league, keep in mind that while there is no doubt MSU produces some premier professional athletes, some teams are looking elsewhere than East Lansing for their future.


Andrew Hayes is the host of Impact Izzone for Impact Sports.

Photo: Scott Wasserman/Impact Sports