Immediately following last night’s NBA Draft lottery, columnist David Steele, posted on Twitter asking that armed guards keep Michael Jordan from coming anywhere near D.C. until the draft is over. Wizards fans who remember when Jordan drafted Kwame Brown with the #1 pick in 2001 do not find this statement one bit outlandish.

I thought it worthwhile to revisit that hot debacle, and my research led me to discover that not only did Kwame expect, presumably, that he would average more than 10 points per game more than once (10.9 ppg, his career high in 8 years in the league), but he also thought he might get a chance to shine alongside M.J.

Here’s an exert from a June ’01 article in USA Today:

One of those dreams is possibly playing with Jordan, who is contemplating a comeback this season. Broken ribs 2 weeks ago slowed Jordan, but he is getting in condition to play again.

“I had to make my (selection) as if Michael Jordan will not be playing,” Jordan said. “If I decide to play, it’ll only add to what we’ve done.”

Brown is eager to play with Jordan.

“Who else has a chance to say that their boss is the best player ever,” Brown said. “If he plays, I can learn a lot, and I can still learn from him even if he doesn’t.”

Jordan did in fact return during Brown’s rookie season to lead the team in scoring with 22 ppg in 60 games, Brown contributed 4.5 ppg in 57.

Without getting too carried away with the hindsight here, what’s appropriate to describe these statements? Lousy with delusions of grandeur?

Apropos of nothing other than that Wizards fans have been having entirely too much fun today.

People seen a little tense about Maurkice Pouncey. I don’t want to talk about Maurkice. I want to talk about Trent Williams. He may sound like a character from a movie co-starring Andrew McCarthy and Jami Gertz. He’s actually the 6′ 5”, 315-lb O-lineman taken by the Redskins with the fourth pick in last night’s draft. And since anyone who tells you that they know how anyone picked last night is going to pan out is lying, and since Williams was the only guy picked to give M.C. Taskmaster a big old hug when his name was called at the podium, let’s call Williams the feel good story of the first round.

Who knows if this guy is going to be any good. What we have learned about Trent in the last 24-hours: 1.) His nickname is Silverback and 2.) He has, to quote his close confidant and fellow draftee, Gerald McCoy, wrist game.

McCoy, who went #3, one pick ahead of Williams, was keeping track of the draft board’s wrist game throughout the night. He also posted what Joe Haden and himself were sporting at Radio City last night on TwitPic.

Back to Williams. They don’t just let anyone be known as Silverback. He’s probably going to be really good.

BREAKING: Skins Draft Trent Williams (Mr. Irrelevant)

In honor of me, who is stepping up, and creating the family feast this Thanksgiving (I’m not joking, this is real), thought we’d have a little fun and do a live draft of Thanksgiving menu items to round out the short work week. Surely, it’ll generate some ideas for what I should include in my spread – 100% chance I won’t be able to pull any of your favorite delicacies off, but have fun playing and getting my hopes up.

The rules are simple, once a Thanksgiving appetizer, beverage, dinner item, dessert or after-dessert appertif has been selected, it’s off the board. However, we’ll reward your creativity and allow you to double-up, sort of. For example, if some real Thanksgiving cretin selects “turkey”, then feel free to select ‘“bacon-glazed turkey brined in butter and olive oil” right on top of that.

Additionally, there’s no order or limit to the number of selections. That means, plenty of opportunity to berate other people’s picks, and ostensibly their Thanksgiving familial tradition. So make your picks, then take a break and write a diatribe against Granny Sooze’s banana creme pie.

I’ll be moderating, censoring almost nothing.

Enjoy, and please avail yourselves of Delish.com’s list of the Most Fattening Thanksgiving Foods. Drafting opens today, November 25, at 11:30 a.m. EST

Well, it proved to not be a bad way to spend a balmy Saturday afternoon.

I met the task master himself. I asked Goodell what he thought about the Stafford contract, to which he responded, “Lot of money, good kid.” I detected a bit of seethe in those few words.

Newbie Stafford’s guaranteed money ($41.7 mil) trumps that of the highly-accomplished Ben Roethlisberger’s ($36 mil).

The spread in the VIP lounge, impeccable – penne ala vodka and phenomenal finger foods. We ran out of beer by the third pick. But they remedied that pretty quickly.

For a fleeting moment, I thought we weren’t going to get a boo barrage when the Jets took Sanchez…then we learned the details of the trade (the Jets gave up their first-round pick, their second-round (No. 52), and defensive end Kenyon Coleman, safety Abram Elam and quarterback Brett Ratliff), and it was much worse than booing; I heard ‘rape!’ being uttered, a lot.

In my opinion, the most intriguing moment of the first round came when the Ravens took  Ole Miss OT Michael Oher, the young man profiled in Michael “Moneyball” Lewis’ book, The Blind Side. A book about the behemoth of a gifted athlete who has everything in life working against him (homeless at one point). While at the same time being compared to Anthony Munoz and Orlando Pace, two guys who were instrumental in the left Offensive Tackle becoming the second-highest paid position (to QB) in the game.

Speaking of QBs, Cassel inked his deal today. He almost got Stafford money.

I stuck around until the Pats picked traded down twice. Thanks to @tarametblog and Pepsi for hooking me up with the pass.

Check out the rest of my photos from the Draft on Facebook.

Planning to spend Short Skirt Saturday* inside Radio City Music Hall for the 2009 NFL Draft. Thanks to @tarametblog and Pepsi for hooking me up with the V.I.P. pass!

I’ll be there around 2:30, at which point live-tweeting will commence. Follow me on twitter or check out steadyburn.tumblr.com (the weakest looking tumblog in the land at the moment) for all the real-time updates!

Should be a draft to remember, considering that it’s supposed to push 85 tomorrow in NYC, which means only the most irate of Giants and Jets fans are planning to show up and boo incessantly the hometown picks.

If you want to prep for the draft by hearing about Mark Sanchez’ NYC burger odyssey, follow him on twitter here. If you want to get familiar with some of the best pre-draft content going around the blogosphere, there’s always the NFL Draft of All-Time Video Game Greats and Top Five Hottest Girlfriends of 2009 NFL Draft Prospects.

Enjoy the picks!

*In College, a friend of mine coined the term Short Skirt Saturday to represent the first balmy Saturday in the Spring in New York. Self-explanatory, inspired, and completely on point.