And some people are sleeping in a van, I think. They had to be there. The Green Room is the symbol of the draft-day right of passage, a kind of holding pen off the arena floor from which the elite draftees emerge to be escorted into the gleaming lights. Each player is alloted 10 guests, and they all sit at a round table waiting to get the word, waiting to burst into joy. Mothers wait to squeeze their sons.
Brothers wait to slap the hands of brothers they used to slap upside the head.
When Baron Davis heard the Charlotte Hornets had made him the third pick in the draft, he felt nothing but relief. He hadn't slept in 48 hours. He was up until 6 a.m. yesterday playing dominoes with a friend. They said I didn't have enough time. You want to invite them all . . .