Jan & Eva: A Draft Night Kiss Story
Kyle Weidie | June 24, 2011 | 5:31 am
By now, via the quick courtesy of Dan Steinberg and other Internet denizens, you’ve heard about (and have likely seen), Washington Wizards sixth overall pick Jan Vesely jump up and passionately kiss his girlfriend after being selected in the NBA Draft on Thursday night, as I can only imagine someone from the Czech Republic would do. (And if someone has video of fellow NBA Czechs Jiri Welch and George Zidek kissing their girlfriends on their respective draft nights in 2002 and 1995, please do share.)
In the video below, Jan and Ms. Eva herself (last name Kodouskova — see if you can pronounce it correctly before watching), discuss each other and the now semi-famed kiss. The whole affair just might be worth another kiss.
Published in 2011 Summer, 2011-12 Wizards, Jan Vesely, NBA Draft, Players, Summer, Video, Visuals, Wizards Irreverence
For the first time in a long time, I was proud to be a Wizards fan last night. Ernie Grunfeld still deserves to be fired, but his drafting last night was pick for pick exactly what I would have done.
I have no idea whether Vesely will be any good in the NBA, but you had to risk the pick on a Euro because you know you weren’t going to get 6th pick value with any American in the draft.
Singleton looks to be at best a starting small forward in the NBA, and at worst a defensive specialist who will help us guard some of the elite wing players in the NBA.
And Shelvin Mack, my God! We got Shelvin Mack! When you see a guy like this fall to the second round, you can’t but wonder wtf these scouts are thinking. I mean really, if Butler won the national title game and he played well, you can’t tell he would not have been a lottery pick. I thought he was the second best point guard in college basketball this year behind Kyrie Irving. An absolute steal and someone who can contribute from day 1 and will be much better than Jordan Crawford. A great day for Wizards fans!
[...] (H/T: Truth About It) [...]
I’m very pleased with Vesely. I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people. He actually might be a good fit at small forward given his athleticism, but it is hard to imagine they’re not going to use him at PF given his size.
I’m not so sanguine about Singleton. I think Washington made a mistake not taking Kenneth Faried. The guy is a monster on defense and a crazy rebounder. Everyone seems to worry about the fact that he is a bit short for the prototypical NBA PF – but I think he has proven himself more than Singleton.
Shelvin Mack doesn’t seem that impressive to me, but using a second round pick is a super low risk. Plus, no one else available looked that much better.
I do, however, agree he is better than Crawford – but that has more to do with Crawford’s inability to be efficient with the basketball.
We have Blatche, Seraphin, Booker, and Lewis, and now Vesely (who I guess can play 3 too?). Not sure drafting another power forward would have made much sense. I like Faried though. He would give us a toughness that we don’t have much of. But, another player we have too much of as well.
Singleton should be great against a team like Miami in the future. Going to have to find someone who can matchup with Lebron. He seems like the only guy on the roster who stands a chance.
I think Mack in the second round is a steal. To me from what I’ve seen the last two years he has that intangible called “Heart”. A skill you can’t teach. I expect him to make the squad and play a decent amount of minutes
what’s the name of the song that plays in the start of the video?
[...] Vesely got a great smooch from his sweetheart when he was drafted. What a first impression! Twitter was aflutter with claims [...]
I’ve seen Vesely play live countless times over he’s tenure with Partizan Belgrade. He’s atletic even for NBA standards, he’s D & rebounding is ok. He can’t really put the ball to the floor or shoot consistently (although he improved over the years there), and he has no low post game whatsoever, so don’t expect him to play the PF.
He does play with a LOT of hart. I think you’ll love him for that in DC.
[...] Andrew McNeill, 48MoH: I hope so. As Kyle said, we don’t see too many Euro players come over with the type of athleticism that Vesely has. Traditionally, they’re the highly skilled players who don’t move well, especially when we’re talking big men. But he seems to have the same problems many American-born hyper-athletic players have, where he relies too much on that athleticism and hasn’t yet developed the rest of his game. I hope he figures it out, for his girlfriend’s sake. [...]