AP
Posted: 5:26 pm
June 30, 2008
When Nets president Rod Thorn introduced the team's three new draft picks today, he praised the trio as much for their reputations off the court as their ability on it.
"You always look for ability, but you also have to have character," Thorn said as he introduced first-round selections Brook Lopez and Ryan Anderson and second-round pick Chris Douglas-Roberts. "That's what we like about all three."
In the past two years, the Nets gambled with first-round picks, taking Marcus Williams in 2006 and Sean Williams last year, players who had shady pasts and run-ins with the law during their college days at Connecticut and Boston College, respectively.
That's not the case with the team's three selections this year.
No. 10 pick overall Lopez (Stanford), No. 21 pick Anderson (California) and No. 40 pick Douglas-Roberts (Memphis) are all considered intelligent players with strong backgrounds.
"A big part of why we selected them is how they handled themselves when we brought them in," Thorn said.
Lawrence Frank said, "The NBA is all about dealing with adversity, and the character-people, they handle the adversity better."
Lopez, who averaged 19.3 points and 8.2 rebounds for Stanford last season, is considered to be more of an offensive threat than his twin brother, Robin, who was drafted No. 15 overall by the Phoenix Suns.
Asked about playing without his twin for the first time, Brook joked that he was just happy his brother was playing at all.
"I was confident in myself that I would get drafted," Lopez said. "I was worried if he would get drafted at all. No, I'm happy for him and he'll do fine in Phoenix."
Anderson, who led the Pac-10 in scoring with a 21.1 average for California, talked about playing alongside Lopez, a rival Stanford player.
"Everyone hypes up the rivalry between the schools," Anderson said. "I think we have a lot of respect for each other. It was a privilege to play against him and now it will be a privilege to play with him."
Douglas-Roberts helped to lead Memphis to the NCAA title game last April, when they lost to Kansas. He was asked if he spoke to Memphis coach John Calipari about playing for the Nets, a team Calipari coached for parts of three seasons.
"All Cal wanted to talk about when he talks about the Nets is how he got fired," said Douglas-Roberts, who averaged 18.1 points for Memphis last season as a junior. "He did give me great advice and said the story of my life has been proving myself and I have to prove myself all over."
Douglas-Roberts said he was "a little disappointed" when he wasn't selected until the second round.
"But I was disappointed where I got picked, not by the team," Douglas-Roberts said.
Thorn said the Nets were trying to work out a deal late in the first round to select the Memphis guard.
"It worked out well for us," Thorn said. "We needed to get bigger and we got bigger. We needed to get stronger and we did that. We needed length, someone to play inside, someone to shoot the ball and we found all of those things.
"I feel real confident about the guys we drafted," he said.
