Franz Beard’s Basketball Confidential

The Florida Gators will very likely have FIVE players selected in the two rounds of Thursday’s NBA Draft. The Gators are going to set draft history by having three players go in the first 10 picks. Right now, Al Horford is a lock for Atlanta at three. Corey Brewer is hearing a lot of good things from Boston at five but the Phoenix Suns are trying very hard to trade Shawn Marion to get either the fourth or fifth pick so they can decide between Brewer and Joakim Noah. The Minnesota Timberwolves have had Noah as their guy all along. Kevin McHale followed Jo every step of the way in the NCAA Tournament and he loves the versatility.

We’ve all known that Horford, Brewer and Noah were going to be going very quickly, now here’s the good news. Everything points to Chris Richard going in the first 10-15 picks of the second round and there is a very good chance that Taurean Green could go in the first six picks of the second round.

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Franz Beard
Back in January of 1969, the late, great Jack Hairston, then the sports editor of the Jacksonville Journal, called me on the phone one night and asked me if I wanted to work for him. I said yes. The entire interview took 30 seconds. It's my experience that whenever the interview lasts 30 seconds or less, I get the job. In the 48 years that I've been writing and getting paid for it, I've covered Super Bowls, World Series, NCAA basketball championships, BCS championship games, heavyweight title fights and what seems like thousands of college football, baseball and basketball games. I'm a columnist and special assignments editor for Gator Country once again, writing about the only team that ever mattered to me, the Florida Gators.