40 Acres Sports

Breaking News: ESPN is Not Biased Against Your Favorite Team. Of course that doesn’t mean they don’t suck.

Coaches, fans hold their breath as more players flirt with NBA. Discussion on AJ Abrams and other NBA Draft early entries.

The NBA announced on Thursday that former Longhorn [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag] was the winner of the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy as the 2007-08 T-Mobile NBA Rookie of the Year. He’s the first Longhorn to ever win the award.

Durant received 90 out of 125 first-place votes finishing comfortably ahead of Atlanta’s Al Horford and Houston’s Luis Scola. Somehow five sportswriters didn’t even put Durant in their top two. Kevin average 20.3 points (7.6 points more than any other rookie), 4.4 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game in his rookie season.

Congratulations Kevin!

Source

Hedo Turkoglu named NBA’s most improved player, former Longhorn LaMarcus Aldridge is the runner up with 9 first place votes.

TJ Ford scores 21 points in 23 minutes in Raptors playoff win over Magic. Great game after two rough ones for TJ.

Augustin made right decision, no matter what might have been. He had $3 million reasons he had to make this decision.

Like his backcourt mate AJ Abrams, sophomore point guard [tag]DJ Augustin[/tag] will be leaving Texas early and entering the NBA Draft. Augustin will not hire an agent and has until June 16 to pull his name out and return for his junior season. Unlike Abrams I feel that now that Augustin has made this decision he won’t turn back. His draft positioning is pretty well decided at between about 12th and 25th overall and unless something happens to make him drop out of the first round during his workouts.

It looks like we’ll be seeing a very different team next year, let’s hope someone (Justin Mason, Dogus Balbay, and/or J’Covan Brown) can step up and take over the point guard position.

In very surprising news, Texas junior guard [tag]AJ Abrams[/tag] has reportedly declared for the NBA Draft. FoxSports.com is reporting that multiple sources have indicated to them that Abrams will workout for NBA teams but not hire an agent, hoping to get a better feel on what exactly his draft prospects are. Since he’s not hiring an agent, Abrams can pull his name out of the draft at any time and return to Texas with no issue. Thanks to a new(?) rule NBA teams can now pay for travel for workouts so there’s no risk for AJ, but I also don’t see the reward in it for him. I don’t believe there’s much chance a team would use a draft pick on a 5-foot-10 shooting guard.

I just put up a poll a few minutes ago about whether incoming frosh J’Covan Brown or Abrams should start next year, it now looks like Rick Barnes might not have to make that decision. Hopefully he decides to stay in school for his senior season, but if not best of luck to AJ at the next level.

The official letter of intent from 2008 shooting guard J’Covan Brown is finally in the hands of the Texas coaching staff. The 6-foot-2 shooting guard’s recruitment was a roller coaster from the very start. Even after securing his commitment in November, there was much doubt about whether he’d ever actually sign with the Horns. J’Covan has wanted to be a Longhorn all along but he has other people involved with his recruitment with their own interests in mind. Fortunately for J’Covan and Texas, what was best for the young man eventually won out.

One of the top #2 guards in country and best players in Texas, Brown is rated as a high 4-star prospect according to both Rivals and Scout. He is an excellent scorer who has the ability to drive to the basket as well as drain it from long range. He handles the ball well and could play spot duty at the point to spell the starter if needed. With his size and skill set, Brown is just the type of guard the Horns needed in this year’s Elite 8 match-up against Memphis. If he can be a factor on the defensive end as well, he has a chance to be huge contributor as a freshman.

Brown is currently the only 2008 prospect signed by Rick Barnes, but depending on if D.J. Augustin and/or Damion James head to the NBA Draft early they may have one more slot to fill. 5-star out of staters Devin Ebanks and Wesley Witherspoon are both seriously considering Texas and would be huge commitments for the program.

Next step for J’Covan is to get down to business in the classroom and make sure he’s eligible to head to Austin this summer and get started. Welcome to the 40 Acres!

Related Links

• ESPN profile
• Rivals profile
• Scout profile

This commercial looks like it’s at least a few months old, but I saw it this weekend for the first time during the Spurs/Suns playoff game. It’s an ad for NBAStore.com and features [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag] slowly walking down the stadium tunnel taking off one jersey after another.

Watch the commercial below:

Kevin starts wearing a Boys & Girls Club jersey, takes it off to reveal the jersey of the mighty Drew-Freeman Middle School Falcons, then his high school Montrose Christian, then the red and gold McDonald’s All-American uni, after that is his Nike Texas Longhorn #35, and finally as he nears the end of the tunnel he reveals his Seattle SuperSonics jersey. I guess next year they’ll have to update it again to add another one. Very cool commercial and always great to see Kevin wearing the burnt orange on national television.