NBA draft more fair to everyone these days

         My, how the NBA’s player-personnel process has changed.

         I thought about that Tuesday night, listening to Mario Elie tell his story. Elie, a candidate to coach the Charlotte Bobcats, was a former seventh-round pick. The Milwaukee Bucks took him 160 selections into the 1985 draft. He played overseas and in various minor leagues, before establishing an 11-season NBA career.

    Seventh round? The NBA has trimmed its draft to two rounds, and in the bottom half of the second, you tend to hear obscure names of Eastern European teenagers.

    It’s practical for the teams and fair to the players that they trimmed this thing to two rounds.