Another draft, another Big Ten power forward for the Charlotte Hornets.
The Hornets passed on a shooting guard to take Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky, graduated from Benet Academy in Lisle, with the ninth pick in the NBA draft Thursday night.
The 7-foot-1, 242-pound Kaminsky was The Associated Press Player of the Year this past season, leading the Badgers to a win over Kentucky in the Final Four before falling to Duke in the national championship game. He was the only Division I player to average at least 17 points, eight rebounds, two assists and 1.5 blocks for the season.
It marks the third straight year the Hornets have used their first pick on a power forward from the Big Ten.
They selected Indiana’s Cody Zeller and Noah Vonleh the last two seasons. The team traded Vonleh and veteran guard Gerald Henderson on Wednesday to Portland in a deal that brought Nicolas Batum to the Hornets.
Selecting Kaminsky was a surprise, particularly to a fan base which largely booed the pick.
The Hornets have been busy leading up to the draft, making three trades in the last 10 days in an effort to improve their outside shooting. The expectation was they would add another pure shooter after they finished last in the NBA in 3-point shooting in 2014-15.
However, they passed on Duke’s versatile guard Justise Winslow and Kentucky’s Devin Booker to take Kaminsky.
Kaminsky does shoot well for a big man, though. He averaged 18.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists for the Badgers while shooting 54.7 percent from the field and 41.6 percent from 3-point range.
Kaminsky is a fan of Hornets owner Michael Jordan, although he said he’s never met him.
“Michael Jordan is everything there,” Kaminsky said of Chicago. “He’s still is. I had all his posters on my wall. Space Jam’s my favorite movie. Crazy to think he thought highly enough of me to take me ninth in the draft. Grateful for the opportunity.”
Kaminsky played four seasons at Wisconsin and at 22 is one of the older players in this year’s draft.
“Having to go through some tough times in college really made me better,” Kaminsky said. “I had a great last year in college and it really propelled me in the NBA draft. Going top 10, that’s something I never thought I would be doing.”
In a twist, Kaminsky ended up with a franchise he took a veiled shot at during a post to his personal blog on May 1, 2014.
When Kaminsky announced his intent to return to Wisconsin for his senior season, he pointed to the attendance at Charlotte Bobcats games as an example of why the NBA appeared “boring” to him and why he wanted to stay in college for another season. The team hadn’t yet changed over to Hornets when he wrote the blog.
“I know the NBA has their crazy fans and all, but if you look at all of their games, there are games when teams like the Bobcats get hardly any fans, and it looks flat out boring,” Kaminsky wrote on his blog. “At the Kohl Center, we play in front of nearly 17,000 fans every single time we step onto the court. When we travel, we play in front of sell-out crowds who absolutely hate us. Not because of who is on the team, but because of where we go to school. Who could leave that?”
Kaminsky later deleted that blog.
