Gallinari

FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH

•The real story is not that 12 freshmen went in the first round of the NBA Draft, or that only five seniors went. The real story is the disdain the NBA has for college basketball, the thinking being that college basketball is watered down, not a very good predictor of future NBA success, and that no one stays in college if they don’t have to.

This is the thinking, whether anyone in the league wants to admit it or not.

How did it get this way?

The success of the young players in the league has turned the NBA Draft into being all about potential, and the inevitable offshoot of that is college basketball has been devalued.

•Remember when the Red Sox manager got more criticism than a politician in a bad economy? No more. Not now.

•Carcieri and Cicilline need a referee.

•The NBA Draft was so young it should have been carded.

•Rocco Mediate connects with people in a way few golfers are able.

•Quiz of the Week: Since the NBA Draft lottery began in 1985 only four players taken with the first overall pick have gone on to win an MVP Award. Can you name them? (Answer near the bottom of the column.)

•Line of the Week comes from Dan Jenkins, the former Sports Illustrated writer, in his new novel on the LPGA Tour called The Franchise Babe: “Politics was where failed lawyers go to wear ugly suits and let the government pay the rent.”

•There’s no truth to the rumor that Jenkins did his field work in Rhode Island.

•Or that the General Assembly would be more fun if the same crowd that goes to the NBA Draft showed up.

•If you see Shawn Chacon, give him a clue, for in the real world when you push your boss to the floor, you usually get fired.

•Think of a linebacker playing tennis and you have Rafael Nadal, as tough as his sport gets.

•The Dow keeps crumbling as much as Pau Gasol’s reputation.

•Welcome to the Big Apple, Danilo Gallinari, who was booed big-time after the Knicks took him with the sixth pick.

•Longtime Mount Pleasant High school coach Jimmy Ahern, who died in February after a six-year battle with cancer, will be honored at Triggs Memorial Golf Course on July 12. There will be a golf tournament at 8 a.m. and a celebration of his life afterward, with proceeds to go to a scholarship fund.

•Don’t look now, but the Detroit Tigers are finally starting to play the way they were supposed to after an atrocious start.

•I suspect that J.R. Giddens, the Celtics first-round draft pick, will be a younger, less broken-down, version of Tony Allen, and make Allen expendable.

•Will Ferrell is a one-trick pony.

•Someone better throw out a life raft to the Yankees’ Robinson Cano, who is off to a horrible start.

•And the Mets’ David Wright, too.

•Donte Green, the Syracuse freshman who should have stayed in school, came real close to making a horrible decision, as he fell like a stone through the first round and finally went 28th.

•If it’s summer, another Cher farewell tour can’t be far behind.

•Jay Bilas was excellent as a draft analyst.

•As was Fran Fraschilla, who had a great handle on the European players.

•You know you’ve seen too many movies, Bunky, when you realize Jane Fonda is 70.

•Then again, 70 is the new 50, right? The way gray is supposed to be the new black, right?

• Jon Lester has become the pitcher he once was touted to be.

•If there’s such a thing as a bad taste award, Shaq is the winner for his recent putdown of Kobe in a rap that has to be heard to be believed.

•If the Celtics had liked Eddie House as their backup point guard, they wouldn’t have brought in Sam Cassell.

•Before the spin masters get done with this, it will seem like Obama and Hillary are dating.

•OK, now that Derrick Rose has been anointed, let’s see if he can make two jump shots in a row.

•Only four Big East players were drafted, and none from the Atlantic 10.

•You know the Yankees have pitching issues when they’re giving Sidney Ponson another shot.

•My new rule is I don’t want to see any movie based on a comic book, graphic or otherwise.

•Quiz of the Week: David Robinson, Shaquille O’Neil, Allan Iverson and Tim Duncan, who won it twice.

•Both Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan would have been better off if they had been caged as kids.

•The odds on Stanley Robinson coming back to UConn next year are slim as Jim Calhoun lives up to last year’s promise to clean house. Doug Wiggins and Curtis Kelly already have been dismissed, Wiggins going to UMass, and Kelly supposedly headed to Kansas State.

•Bill Walker of Kansas State is a great get for the Celtics in the second round.

•There is a feeling among people close to Doc Rivers that he may not be in this for the long haul.

•With the news that Foxwoods is laying off 200 people, I have only one question: Is there any hope for the rest of us?

breynold@projo.com