did all of y'all get this too?


A Letter From Scott Layden

Dear KBY,

With the 2002 NBA Draft coming up next week we thought it an appropriate time to update you on what has been going on behind the scenes with our draft preparation.

We have already brought in a long list of potential draft picks and attended the annual NBA pre-draft camp at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. The sessions consist not only of basketball-related drills, but also include a host of interviews and physical tests so that we can best figure out who is the best all-around player for the organization.

Each year there are a lot of tough decisions to make going into the draft. Our entire staff participates in the process, from our scouts to our coaches, all working together to determine which players are the best fit for our organization.

Many factors go into the decision: How tough players are, how skilled they are, what type of character they have. What conference they come to and what type of competition they play against. We look at everything. We look at statistics. Then we make the decision on the information we have. When we go into the draft, we have studied and restudied all the things we've compiled over the years. Ideally you'd love to find a player that can play and have the ability to grow within your system. We think it's an important ingredient ... that we get players who are self-starters, self-motivated ... players with good concentration and focus so that they can make themselves better. You want the players with those intangibles so that they'll get better year-in and year-out. Having the seventh pick this year is a bit of pressure because it's so important to the franchise. But we're excited about our possibilities right now and are keeping all our options open.

At this time, we have begun to narrow our list to know who we're going to pick, but our goal remains to take the best player available at number seven. There are a lot of big players in this draft, players that have played power forward and maybe some center in college or abroad. Yao Ming you have heard about already. The others will include Chris Wilcox, Drew Gooden, Curtis Borchardt, Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Jared Jeffries, Amare Stoudemire, and Melvin Ely. Also on the list are players like Caron Butler, Dajuan Wagner, Nene Hilario and Mike Dunleavy. They are all dynamic players in their own way and will all probably be solid pros. We are considering all of them at this point.

Also, as you may know, both Borchardt and Dunleavy have until the 19th to take themselves out of the draft and keep their eligibility (Chris Marcus of Western Kentucky has already done that), so that will also be a factor as we go forward.

We hope this gives you a little more insight into the process. We will get you another email update as draft day approaches. All information on the draft will be posted on www.nyknicks.com as well. As a reminder, the 2002 NBA Draft will be held on June 26 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden and is open to the public.

Once again, thanks for your support, and stay tuned.

Best Regards,

signature of Scott Layden

I didn't, but I'm not on the nyknicks.com emailing list. Is that what it is from, or do you have some connections?

Posted by knicksbabyyeah:

did all of y'all get this too?


A Letter From Scott Layden

Dear KBY,

With the 2002 NBA Draft coming up next week we thought it an appropriate time to update you on what has been going on behind the scenes with our draft preparation.

We have already brought in a long list of potential draft picks and attended the annual NBA pre-draft camp at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. The sessions consist not only of basketball-related drills, but also include a host of interviews and physical tests so that we can best figure out who is the best all-around player for the organization.

Each year there are a lot of tough decisions to make going into the draft. Our entire staff participates in the process, from our scouts to our coaches, all working together to determine which players are the best fit for our organization.

Many factors go into the decision: How tough players are, how skilled they are, what type of character they have. What conference they come to and what type of competition they play against. We look at everything. We look at statistics. Then we make the decision on the information we have. When we go into the draft, we have studied and restudied all the things we've compiled over the years. Ideally you'd love to find a player that can play and have the ability to grow within your system. We think it's an important ingredient ... that we get players who are self-starters, self-motivated ... players with good concentration and focus so that they can make themselves better. You want the players with those intangibles so that they'll get better year-in and year-out. Having the seventh pick this year is a bit of pressure because it's so important to the franchise. But we're excited about our possibilities right now and are keeping all our options open.

At this time, we have begun to narrow our list to know who we're going to pick, but our goal remains to take the best player available at number seven. There are a lot of big players in this draft, players that have played power forward and maybe some center in college or abroad. Yao Ming you have heard about already. The others will include Chris Wilcox, Drew Gooden, Curtis Borchardt, Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Jared Jeffries, Amare Stoudemire, and Melvin Ely. Also on the list are players like Caron Butler, Dajuan Wagner, Nene Hilario and Mike Dunleavy. They are all dynamic players in their own way and will all probably be solid pros. We are considering all of them at this point.

Also, as you may know, both Borchardt and Dunleavy have until the 19th to take themselves out of the draft and keep their eligibility (Chris Marcus of Western Kentucky has already done that), so that will also be a factor as we go forward.

We hope this gives you a little more insight into the process. We will get you another email update as draft day approaches. All information on the draft will be posted on www.nyknicks.com as well. As a reminder, the 2002 NBA Draft will be held on June 26 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden and is open to the public.

Once again, thanks for your support, and stay tuned.

Best Regards,

signature of Scott Layden

can you post any other e-mails layden sends you during the week/ before the draft? thanks