On the day the NBA Finals began in San Antonio, the league also started its final pre-draft camp at the Moody Bible Institute near downtown Chicago yesterday.
With the two-round NBA draft scheduled to take place on June 26, the crowd at Moody was a Who's Who of current coaches, unemployed coaches and scouts. The camp will conclude on Saturday.
"The only guys who aren't here are coaching in the Finals," said Jimmy Lynam, the former 76ers coach who is now on the staff of Maurice Cheeks with the Portland Trail Blazers.
While the players expected to be taken with one of the top 10 or so picks in the draft are not participating in the camp, the 66 hopefuls at Moody yesterday included guard Jameer Nelson of St. Joseph's, forward Ugonna Onyekwe of Penn, and two Philadelphia-area products in forwards Matt Bonner (Florida) and Matt Carroll (Notre Dame).
