Ashton Gibb

Gibbs, a sophomore guard at Pittsburgh from Scotch Plains, N.J., is one of 44 draft-eligible players who will work out this weekend in front of coaches and personnel executives from 26 NBA teams at the Nets facility in East Rutherford, N.J.

At least Gibbs can give thanks that he isn’t one of the players working out Sunday — because by midnight Sunday underclassmen must decide whether they will remain in the draft or pull out and return to campus.

“The whole decision is kind of a train wreck,” said veteran NBA agent Mark Bartelstein. “If the goal is for players to get really accurate information on where they stand and make a good decision, I think the May 8 date is certainly not benefitting [them].

“You’re certainly not giving the players a fair shot to understand where they stand.”

Gibbs, his father, Temple, and Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon, who is expected to attend the workout, all declined comment until Saturday.

But Ashton recently said he fully intended to remain in the Draft even though he is not projected by DraftExpress.com to be selected.

“I feel I can play at the NBA level,” the 6-foot 2 Gibbs said last month by text. “I’m looking forward to the challenge. When I entered the Draft, I entered to work my hardest to get drafted.”

Like the other underclassmen invited to the event, Gibbs has not yet hired an agent. Along with their coaches and family members, the players will get some feedback from the NBA personnel, and then have to make a very quick decision about whether to stay in school or make, in some cases, a risky jump to the NBA.

The NBA Draft lottery isn’t until May 17, meaning teams have no idea where they are picking now, and the Draft itself isn’t until June 23. Most teams don’t begin bringing players in for workouts until late May and early June.

Bartelstein understands that certain players — like John Wall -- benefit from coming out early.

But for every John Wall, there are dozens of players whose futures remain unclear and who could benefit from more time in college.

“I think kids benefit tremendously from more years in college versus less,” Bartelstein said.

As Percy Allen of the Seattle Times pointed out, the NCAA has changed its rules about draft-eligible players several times over the years.

At one point, players could return to campus even if they were drafted.

Voshon Leonard left Minnesota as a junior in 1994 and went in the second round of the Draft. He came back to school the following season and finished his career as Minnesota’s all-time leading scorer.

The NCAA then tweaked the system to allow players who weren’t drafted to return to school. Kentucky freshman Randolph Morris (pictured) entered the 2005 draft and was not chosen. He came back to Kentucky and played half of the 2005-06 season before leaving school after his junior year. He was then signed by the Knicks in March 2007, becoming the first player to go from playing in the NCAA Tournament to being on an NBA roster in the same week.

The deadline was then changed to 10 days before the Draft and then again to May 8.

Next year the deadline is being moved up again to mid-April to coincide with the beginning of the NCAA early signing period.

The NCAA championship this year was on April 4 and the early signing period began April 13.

If next year’s rules applied this year, UConn freshman Jeremy Lamb and Butler junior Shelvin Mack would have had nine days to decide whether or not to enter the draft. As first reported by ZAGSBLOG, Lamb considered testing the waters but opted to return to school. Mack is testing the waters but has yet to hire an agent.

Still, Bartelstein says the new system will only serve to distract players during March Madness.

“You’re going to now have players that will be focused at the end of the college season far more on their pro prospects than on worrying about their team,” Bartelstein said. “This causes all kinds of issues for their programs, their coaches and for players. You’re asking people to make decisions before there’s any information to make a decision on. It’s going to cause players to turn their focus away from their college team at a critical time in the season.”

The new rules could also encourage the spread of runners and shady characters who get involved with college players in an attempt to provide draft information.

“Now you’re going to have a lot of kids with really bad information,” Bartelstein said. “It leaves it open for a lot of unsavory characters to reach out to kids. Kids crave information, even if it’s bad information. They want some information over none.”

The NCAA sided with college coaches on this one, maintaining that coaches need to know by the early signing period who is leaving and who is returning so they can recruit and plan accordingly.

“It makes it tougher on kids to make a rush decision but I guess they’re trying to say, ‘If you know you want to leave, then leave. If you’re not sure, then you need to come back,’” said Grassroots Canada AAU coach Ro Russell, who will have two former players, Cory Joseph and Olu Ashaolu, at the Nets’ workout. “It will probably impact recruiting in terms of kids want to know if [other] kids are going to leave so they can try to replace them on their roster.”

Kentucky coach John Calipari is holding his own combine Monday and Tuesday for his four draft-eligible players — freshmen Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones, junior DeAndre Liggins and senior Josh Harrrelson – to work out in front of NBA executives.

“We have arranged for these two days of workouts and accompanying one-on-one interviews after classes so that NBA personnel can get a complete picture of the type of student-athletes in our program at the University of Kentucky,” Calipari wrote on his Website.

“My hope is this will allow our players to get direct feedback from NBA decision-makers and hopefully create a clearer picture of what their NBA potential may be. Instead of us telling them what we are hearing, they can hear directly from the clubs.”

While this bold move works for Kentucky, not every school is in position to hold its own combine.

Tennessee freshman Tobias Harris of Long Island has already worked out for several NBA teams, according to his father, Torrel, and those teams came away “very impressed with his shooting ability and how physically fit his body looks.”

The 6-8 Harris is projected as the No. 21 pick by DraftExpress.com.

“In Tobias’ case we tried to do the very best evaluation we could possibly do by speaking to all the NBA teams that had serious interest in Tobias playing for their teams,” Torrel said by email.

“We came away very pleased with the number of NBA teams we spoke with, from projected lottery positions to the top 21 teams. The NBA teams are very impressed with Tobias’ versatility, [his ability to play] multiple positions as a player, his work ethic, his character, his unselfishness as a player, his winning desire, his attitude, his willingness to make other players better and his willingness to get better. He’s coachable and he’s a fast learner at a very young age. His potential is unlimited.”

In Harris’ case, “he has all the information” he needs to make his decision by Sunday, his father said.

Yet other players like Gibbs could be left scrambling this weekend to make the biggest decision of their lives.

NEW YORK

So says Washington Wizards coach Flip Saunders.

“He’s got an extremely high basketball IQ and it seems like he’s got a photographic memory,” Saunders said before Wall put up 19 points, six assists and five rebounds in the Wizards’ 92-90 loss to the Knicks Sunday night at Madison Square Garden.

Asked if Wall’s ability to remember plays was unique among NBA players, Saunders said: “It’s very uncommon. You still have guys in the sixth month of the season going through plays and they can’t still remember where they’re supposed to go. We show a play one time and he knows where’s everyone’s supposed to be.”

The No. 1 overall pick out of Kentucky, Wall looked very impressive in his pro debut at the Garden, racing upcourt to score transition layups in three or four seconds at a time and directing the offense in the absence of Gilbert Arenas.

The 6-foot-4 Wall is averaging 16.2 points, 8.0 assists and 2.2 steals, while committing 3.5 turnovers a game.

“He’s probably one of the fastest, most physically gifted players that we’ll have in the league,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said.

D’Antoni added, “I hope he never learns to shoot real well, because then, he would be unguardable.”

Arenas, who was reportedly fined $50,000 for faking an injury last week so teammate Nick Young could start, is now actually sidelined with a groin injury. He declined to speak with reporters before the game.

In his absence, Saunders has relied on Wall and former Kansas guard Kirk Hinrich, whom the team calls “Elmer” because of his ability to serve as an effective glue player.”

“I don’t want nobody to say it’s my team or I’m the main guy on the team,” Wall said. “I just want to be the leader and have this team get back to where” they were before.

The Wizards are in a state of major transition. They have a new owner in Ted Leonsis. The fate of Arenas, who was suspended 50 games last season for bringing guns into the locker room, seems to get cloudier every day. Washington has one of the league’s youngest rosters at an average age of 24.4 years. And Leonsis has even talked of changing the team name.

Into that situation has stepped Wall.

Yet Saunders said Wall’s experience at Kentucky, where he played for a high-profile coach in John Calipari, and alongside four other first-round draft picks, has prepared him for his new surroundings.

“If you played at Kentucky with that environment and the situation, the focus that was on that team, that probably prepared him as much as any No. 1 pick coming out for being able to deal with that situation,” Saunders said. “He goes about it just like a 20-year-old kid, having fun playing, having fun hanging out with his teammates, going through situations.

“The difference is he is a very mature 20-year-old. He’s our leader. He’s very vocal in practice, very demanding of players, both veteran and young guys. He knows how the game is supposed to be played and if they don’t play it or don’t practice at a certain level, he’s not afraid to voice his opinion to those players. So that’s definitely a positive from a coaching standpoint.”

Despite the hype surrounding him, Wall said he didn’t have any expectations for himself, only for the team.

“I don’t really care about my expectations for myself,” he said. “The main thing I can do is go out there and play basketball like I know how to, try to get better every day individually.”

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NEW YORK — John Wall’s life will change forever Thursday night.

Not only is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards, but Wall’s sneaker commercial will make its television debut during the draft.

“To have your own commercial is a dream come true,” Wall said Wednesday during a meeting with the media.

Yahoo! Sports reported that Wall inked a five-year, $25-million deal with Reebok.

The “ZigTech Slash” is part of the company’s ZigTech collection.

Wall said he had other offers but he wanted to be the face of Reebok.

“I needed to grab the opportunity and run with it,” he said.

Yao Ming wears Reebok but the company hasn’t had a star since Allen Iverson.

Wall’s connection to Reebok dates to the summer of 2007, when he had a breakout event at the Reebok All-American Camp in Philadelphia playing against Brandon Jennings.

“When I got first got known on the national scene, I went to Reebok Camp so it started from there,” Wall said.

Earlier this month, Wall and his agent, Dan Fagan, met with Reebok reps in Boston to discuss a potential deal.

“They had a great plan,” Walls said. “When we first got there, there was 1,000 people in there. All the workers had a shirt on with me on it. It was crazy.  I didn’t know what to do so they got me to do my dance in front of all those people. That was crazy. I went in to the room and they had a great game plan of how they were going to market me.”

Wall followed the lead of other NBA players with exceptional marketing and sneaker deals, including LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard.

“LeBron and Kobe and Derrick Rose and Dwight Howard, those guys are very marketable,” Wall said. “The companies, the brand they signed with, I wanted to be a guy like that.

“Reebok gave me an opportunity to have a commercial, have my own shoe, so that’s what I looked into and I feel it was the best situation for me at that time.”

KENTUCKY TRIO IN THE GREEN ROOM

As Wall was surrounded Wednesday by reporters at a corner table at the Westin Times Square, his former Kentucky teammate, DeMarcus Cousins, sat at a nearby table wearing his now trademark black-framed glasses.

“You never know him, he has glasses over there,” Wall cracked. “He’ll pull anything out.”

Asked by one reporter if his glasses were “a fashion statement or an optical necessity,” Cousins quipped, “That’s just Boogie.”

Wall and Cousins are among five Kentucky players who could go in the first round, along with point guard Eric Bledsoe and big men Patrick Patterson and Daniel Orton.

Wall, Cousins and Patterson were invited to the Green Room.

“It makes it a lot more comfortable having your brothers around,” the 6-11 Cousins said. “We can call each other, talk about what we are going through because we’re basically going through the same things. It’s just a lot more comfortable.”

Cousins has taken some heat about his conditioning, with ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb going so far as to compare him to NBA busts Bryant “Big Country” Reeves and Benoit Benjamin.

Cousins, who weighed 289 pounds during a recent Nets workout, didn’t deny that his conditioning needed work.

“I believe I need to improve on my conditioning and my defense,” he said.

Wall defended his former teammate’s conditioning, saying “it was basically because he got a lot of fouls called on him and so he adjusted to it. He played more minutes, so it wasn’t just conditioning.”

As for concerns about his character, Cousins replied: : “I play with a fire. I’m an aggressive, physical player. I play off my emotions a lot and that’s what makes me who I am.”

Wall again defended his friend.

“If you really just have a time or a day or two to sit with him, he’s funny, likes to joke around, have a good time,” Wall said. “Just like to live life and have a good time.”

The 6-9 Patterson, the elder statesmen of the Kentucky group, didn’t learn he had been invited to the Green Room along with Wall and Cousins until around noon on Tuesday when he was in Kentucky.

“All of us wanted to be in the Green Room,” Patterson said. “My teammates were here and I wanted to be alongside them. And I felt like I was deserving of being here and finally it happened.”

Patterson said he thought Bledsoe would be in New York Thursday. As for Orton, whose draft stock has dropped, he said, “I don’t know where he’s at. I’m not sure.”

Patterson picked out his own outfit, “down to the shoes, the tie. Every single inch, every detail, I picked myself.”

Wall’s mom chose his suit and he still hasn’t seen it.

“My mom picked it out,” he said. “Hopefully it ain’t no pink or green. I don’t want to get picked on like Jalen Rose and them.”

(The AP contributed)

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SECAUCUS, N.J. – Mikhail Prokhorov looked a little like an Austin Powers villain even before the NBA draft lottery began.

Once it was announced that Prokhorov and his Nets would not get John Wall with the first pick in the Draft, the brow of the Russian billionaire furrowed even more.

Whether you call him Mike or Michael, as NBA Commissioner David Stern said we should now that Prokhorov has come to America, one thing you should call him is confident.

“If everything goes as planned, I predict that next season we will be in the playoffs and as championship, minimum in one year, maximum five,” he said.

Read the full story at SNY.

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If you’re a New Jersey Nets fan, is this pure fantasy or is it within the realm of possibility?

After their 12-70 finish last season, the Nets are in position to acquire both Wall and James to bolster their team as they begin a new era under the ownership of Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.

The Nets will learn during Tuesday night’s NBA Draft Lottery in Secaucus whether they will secure the rights to use the No. 1 pick on Wall, the 6-foot-4 freshman point guard from Kentucky.

Read the full story at SNY.

(Photo courtesy ICON SMI)

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But Coach K says the addition of a single player to the 2010-11 version of the Blue Devils will  transform the team’s entire offense.

“We’ll change our whole offense, the way we play because of Kyrie,” Krzyzewski said Wednesday at the New York Athletic Club, referring to incoming freshman point guard Kyrie Irving of Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick High School.

Read the full story on SNY.

(Photo courtesy Irving Family)

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“We are pleased that the NBA’s Board of Governors approved Mikhail Prokhorov’s purchase of majority ownership of the Nets, welcoming into the NBA ownership ranks the league’s first majority investor from outside of North America,” said NBA Commissioner David Stern.  “We anticipate that his passion for the game and business acumen will be of considerable value not only to the Nets franchise but to the entire NBA.”

Prokhorov will become the NBA’s first non-North American owner as well as the second-wealthiest owner in the league after Paul Allen of Portland.

Read the full story at SNY.

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John Wall,

The 6-foot-4 Wall is seen as a transcendent personality who can captivate fans and also sell a variety of products, including sneakers. BEST will collaborate with another firm to handle Wall’s marketing rights.

Adrian Wojnarowksi of  Yahoo! Sports reported that LeBron James’ fledgling marketing company, LRMR, was in talks to bring Wall aboard, but DraftExpress.com said LRMR will not be BEST’s collaborative partner.

Brandon Knight of Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Pine Crest on Wednesday told the Orlando Sentinel he plans to announce “sometime soon.”

The 6-foot-4 Knight lists Florida, Kentucky, Kansas, UConn, and Miami as his final five.

“I’m pretty ready. I want to make sure I make the right decision,” Knight told the Sentinel after scoring 25 points in a 77-63 victory over Williston in a Florida Class 3A semifinal.

His father, Efrem Knight, recently told me there was no leader among the schools.

“Nobody’s leading. Brandon can flourish at any one of the schools that he’s going to,” Efrem Knight said by phone. “It still where it’s been. He’s considering all the same schools.”

Knight is part of a group of elite senior guards who has yet to  announce a school.

Fellow McDonald’s All-Americans Cory Joseph, Josh Selby and Doron Lamb remain uncommitted.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” one Division 1 assistant coach said. “It’s just odd because all these guys are point guards.”

The coach said he believed Knight’s delay in announcing was holding up the other guards, who are waiting to see what he does.

“My thing is this, if you want to go to Kentucky then say you’re going there,” the coach said. “[Kentucky coach John] Calipari really wants Brandon Knight and I think Coach Cal is holding everyone up.”

Kentucky will lose John Wall to the NBA Draft and could lose fellow freshman Eric Bledsoe as well, meaning he would need at least one elite guard to  come in. Calipari recently went to scout Joseph at Henderson (Nev.) Findlay Prep, but Joseph’s top five schools remain UConn, Villanova, Texas, UNLV and Minnesota.

Lamb is considering UConn, Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona and West Virginia.

Selby lists Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona and UConn.

Knight, Joseph and Lamb have all taken their five official visits, but none has committed.

“Everyone’s looking at what [Calipari] does,” the coach said.

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