The projected NBA Draft spot was in the high teens to low 20’s for Evan Eschmeyer. But as the draft continued, everybody, it seemed to Eschmeyer, was selected.
There were sleepers. Then point guard after point guard. Seemingly every member of the Duke student body was taken, along with centers who will need green cards to report to training camp from their cities better known for pottery than basketball.
Finally, Eschmeyer’s phone rang. It was his coach at Northwestern, Kevin O’Neill.
“I really didn’t think I’d go as high as people thought,” said the 6-11, 255-pound Eschmeyer, who compared his game, in looks and style, not necessarily productivity, to that of Kevin McHale.
“Coach O’Neill called me and said he had had several teams call him that day and were emphatic about the foot and grilled him and he just didn’t want to tell me until it was necessary and so I kind of understood what was going on.”
Like Rony Seikaly, like Gheorghe Muresan, like Jayson Williams, Eschmeyer comes complete with his own medical question. But the second-team ’99 All-America after a 19.6 scoring season, insists there is no question with his foot. He did not miss a game in four years at Northwestern.
Eschmeyer broke his right foot as a freshman, didn’t play and then appealed to the NCAA and received an extra year to recuperate – thus his six-year senior status.
“I had him for two years,” O’Neill said yesterday, “and he didn’t miss a second of practice. What the Nets are getting is a blue-collar player, not a great athlete but a worker who has great hands, is a better than average passer. He’s just a tough, hard-nosed kid who likes contact.”
And who has no concerns about his past medical history.
“I had a broken foot six years ago and it took a while to heal. I haven’t missed a game in four years and it’s obviously fine now,” Eschmeyer said, suggesting teams were scared off in the first round. “People wanted to wait and see if my foot can make it … I’m confident it can.”
Why? “I’m not going to come into New Jersey and jump over the backboard but every time I go out I’m going to play hard and everyone’s going to know I’m on the floor. If there’s a loose ball, I’m going to jump on it. If there’s a rebound, I’m going to get it,” Eschmeyer, 24, said.
As the draft progressed, Eschmeyer became content to let the first round go past and hopefully a second round pick for a team that needed center help, a team that would give him a chance to play, a team that wanted him. The Nets fit those categories. And they wanted him. They just never thought they would get him.
So they were stunned he was there at 34. After all, they had not even bothered to bring him in and work him out. That’s how certain the Nets were he’d be a first rounder. Almost immediately after the selection, GM John Nash received a page. It was from Jim McIlvaine. Here’s trouble, Nash thought. One big center griping about the drafting of another big center. Quite the contrary.
“I found out that I was totally wrong about his reaction,” Nash said. “He happens to know Evan and he was calling to endorse the fact that this young man is a terrific player, hard worker and he was delighted to have him on our team and felt that he would be an improvement.”
McIlvaine, who played for O’Neill at Marquette, and Eschmeyer struck up a friendship at Pete Newell’s big man’s camp two summers ago. Eschmeyer is excited about going to a team where he’ll find time and a strong friendship already intact. The Nets are excited, too. Eschmeyer has a strong inside offensive game, one that commands a double-team, the role Seikaly was supposed to bring. Get an inside scorer doubled and life becomes astoundingly easier for the likes of Keith Van Horn, Kerry Kittles and Kendall Gill. Plus, Eschmeyer shot .762 at the line last season.
“It ends up almost a better thing for me,” said Eschmeyer, an Ohio farm boy type from New Knoxville, a town of 800.
“I was a little curious at first as to why it [sliding] was happening. I thought I would slip a little bit from where everyone projected me. I really believe that part of it was Northwestern, part of it was my foot … I was just [hoping] to go somewhere I can play so I don’t sit on the bench and go to some team excited about having me come in. I think both those scenarios worked out well for me.”
