"The consensus in the Indiana Pacers' draft war room in late June 2002 was to take Tayshaun Prince, the long-armed Kentucky star who was expected to be available when the Pacers were making the 14th pick. The team's scouts were in agreement that Prince, a 6-9 shot-blocking talent with an emerging long-distance game, would be the perfect addition to a team that needed to make defensive strides, coming off its 42-40 season and first-round ouster by the Nets in the playoffs. Prince was the unanimous choice -- until the team's top basketball executive, Donnie Walsh, announced that he was allowing his head coach, Isiah Thomas, to take control of the draft. Weeks earlier, Thomas had settled on Oregon guard Fred Jones after watching him in the pre-draft camp in Chicago. When it came time to make the pick, Walsh stunned his subordinates when he said, 'I'll let the coach make the decision.' Wrong move, as it turned out."

Never heard about this. Thank you, Zeke!

LOL @ Zeke.... again!

LOL @ the Pacers.

This could pretty much be a daily feature.

Reggie Miller just watched tape of "the block" and pissed on a picture of Zeke.

"The block" = probably my favorite sports moment in my young lifetime.

Either that or Mags' home run.

The fact that you can even talk to casual basketball fans about "THE BLOCK" and have them fully understand what you're talking about is absolutely awesome. I still can't watch that clip without smiling and pumping my fist.

Unfortunately, I had to stop watching the Tiger's game literally minutes before Mags parked it. It was still a rush to hear about though.

Also, thank you, Zeke. It's great to know that you continue to earn that jersey in the rafters even after your playing days.

Yea Bosh coulda been a piston, and Jordan coulda been a blazer. Indy was destined to grab fred jones and if they woulda groomed him better he might have paid better dividends. We coulda very well screwed Tay out of his progress if T-Mac hadnt torched us into playing him.

In my office at work:

http://assets.espn.go.com/i/magazine/new/reggie_miller_block.jpg

In my office at work:

http://assets.espn.go.com/i/magazine/new/reggie_miller_block.jpg


Um, no, that was at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Nice try.

What if I tell you my office is at Conseco Fieldhouse? That's right, I'm Larry Bird. The secret's out.

So you're here to find out how a real GM would do it?

Cue the infamous Pacer sig...