On another draft night full of memorable mis-quotes, twelve players that played in Europe in the 08/09 season were selected by NBA franchises, six of those in the first round. While Europe’s growing financial capabilities – abilities to keep talent from going to the NBA that is – had made its mark on the 2008 NBA Draft, a draft in which the outstanding Montenegrin big man Nikola Pekovic had fallen off the first round, it was a different affair this year, with three European players getting picked in the twenties, plus swingman Christian Eyenga with the last pick of the first round. One of the big surprises of the evening, but we’ll come to that later.
