Literally Live From the Phone Booth: Draft Party at the Verizon Center!

When my buddy Ju-Ice asked me the other day if I wanted to attend the Draft Party at Verizon Center last night, I didn't know what to expect. We left before the end of the first round, but we had a great time. Below the jump are my accounts of the evening at the Phone Booth.

• As we walk up 7th Street, we are stopped by two upstanding gentlemen that offered to sell us premium seats for tonight's draft party at the bargain-basement price of only $20 each!  Hard to turn that down, right? Well, we did (this didn't actually happen, but there were scalper-like guys hanging along the entrance just like on game nights. I promise to try not to make up any more stories to make the night seem more fun).
• We're in! I didn't know how many people to expect at this thing, but I was pleasantly surprised at the turnout. It was a good showing considering that the team has won less than 45 games COMBINED over the last two seasons. I was proud of our fans. Ju-Ice and I take a ceremonial lap around the Verizon Center. We're both still extremely nervous about the pick. Is Charlotte going to trade out of the #2, meaning we would be forced to watch our whole night (and, the trade. Whether it's true or not, that's how it would have felt) go up in smoke? Is Charlotte keeping the pick, taking Bradley Beal, but holding him for a king's ransom to the seemingly 28 other teams that covet him? What if Beal is available at 3, and Ernie goes all "Ernie" on us? Ju-Ice asks me that if I check Twitter, just don't tell him. I say OK, but I'm not sure if that's possible. Needless to say, there was great anxiety about the moments ahead.
• We link up with my brother and three other friends, and we get our seats.
• Draft Time! You can hear the New Jersey crowd booing David Stern all the way here! He loves this crap. He's the real-life Vince McMahon. Anyway, Stern announces that the Hornets are on the clock, which is hilarious to me. New Orleans has known who they were picking since approximately 8:27p.m. on May 30. Three minutes or so later, the pick is in, and wouldn't you know it, the pick is Anthony Davis. 
• Charlotte is on the clock! This is the whole draft right here. The tension in the air is thick! I still never saw anything concrete about any trading of the pick. This is really the first time in a couple of weeks where I really comfortably felt like we could end up with Beal. The pick is in: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist! Verizon Center erupts! Friends and total strangers are high-fiving each other! Great moment.
• I can't underscore enough how big a moment that seemed to be for Wizards fans. We've all hoped for the best, but expected the worst through this whole nightmarish ride. I don't remember in recent years a fan base being so locked in to one guy. And I know that there were a number of people who felt like Thomas Robinson, MKG, Andre Drummond, and even Harrison Barnes were better picks for us, but the large majority were keyed in on Bradley Beal.  ESPECIALLY after the trade. We feared every smokescreen and bought every rumor, but it looks like we made it. Unless Ernie blows it...
• BRADLEY BEAL!!! WE GOT HIM!  HOLY SH*T!!! WE GOT HIM!!!!
• Our attention is brought back to the stage on the floor (inconsequential to mention earlier), Steve Buckhantz and Dave Johnson bring out a special guest, it's John Wall, or John Walls per the jumbotron! 

  

  Courtesy of WashingtonPost

  He said some stuff, and I'm sure I should've listened more intently being as though I'm now trying to be a writer/columnist/blogger/whatever and all, but I'm sorry, I was having too much fun. To paraphrase what Jimmy said, it was a great pick, Beal will fit right in, and he's may fill Beal's car up with popcorn as a birthday present/gag.
• After the pick, we're only asked on four different occasions if we were interested in buying season tickets. There was a strict 'don't make eye contact' policy in regard to them.
• Not too much of significance after that, but to sum the remaining highlights in one bullet and in no particular order: a good number of people openly laughed at the Dion Waiters pick; the video chat with Beal was great, already a big fan of how he carries himself alone; the Damian Lillard footage televised on ESPN looked like it was shot with a 1980s home video camera; Myron bet me that Jeremy Lamb would be the best SG in this draft class; dance segment for Wizards Girls finalists; Lee guaranteed that the Cowboys would win the NFC East; dance segment for Wizards Girls finalists; Donte' guaranteed the 49ers would be in the Super Bowl, we discussed whether or not the Wizards should get back into round 1 to draft the plummeting Perry Jones, and lastly, dance segment for Wizards Girls finalists.

The rest of the night, including Ernie drafting an unknown (to most fans, not to scouts, and Jan Vesely), 6'7 Czech point guard that can't shoot with pick 32, happened outside of the Phone Booth for me. That pick ruined the night for some people. Not me, because A.) uh duh, we have Bradley Beal, and B.) while I would've liked to have gotten Quincy Miller, Doron Lamb, or Kevin Murphy (I liked everything I read about him), I don't know anything about this kid and maybe he'll be OK in a couple of years.  I also read Mike Prada rationalize things before the draft and after the pick by saying that whoever went with this pick wasn't going to see the floor anyway, so and draft and stash was a real possibility. I'm not defending the pick. I didn't like it. But nothing that happened here was going to completely taint the evening for me.

Coming soon, we'll look at what little free agency action is possibly for the Wizards, and what lies ahead for our squad in 2012-13!