Sam Smith has a different take on Podkolzine and Lampe

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This draft stuff is nuts. You read the Chicago camp roundups and every
writer has a different list of guys who helped themselves. I'm looking
forward to Andy Katz's second mock draft, which should come out soon. He
always does one right after Chicago, and he tends to be more accurate than
most. He's a REPORTER. That's something of a lost art among these sports
writers.

Anyway, here's the blurb from Sam Smith, which runs contrary to virtually
everything else we have read lately. Smith seems to be anti-foreigner in
general. He was thrilled the Bulls didn't get the top pick last season so
they wouldn't take Yao Ming. Wonder if he still feels that way. Also, you
can't make any judgments based on how many minutes these guys play in
Europe. It's a weird system over there. Anyway, here you go:

Mark


International report: The buzz at the Chicago predraft camp was about two
international 7-footers-Pavel Podkolzine, a 7-4 Russian playing in Italy,
and Maciej Lampe, a 7-foot Pole playing in Spain. The buzz mostly was: Do
they take us for fools?

Both had individual workouts that proved they were alive. They practiced
alone in empty gyms, running and being 7 feet tall. The suspicion was why
neither plays much for their teams. Podkolzine played just over 100 minutes
all season, and Lampe was dropped to the second division when he played.
Scouts said Lampe had trouble dunking off one foot and Podkolzine seemed
slow, though his standing reach was 9-8.