Perry Dominici

The best part of every NBA draft is the leaked picks on Twitter. Before every pick officially leaves Adam Silver’s kinda creepy looking lips, the NBA world is already aware of who is going where, mostly thanks to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Before his time at ESPN, Woj dominated NBA Twitter while at Yahoo Sports, always getting the story out first, dropping Woj Bombs all over the timeline. But, after chasing the money to the mothership, many speculated Woj might lose his fastball. This realization became an even bigger possibility after the NBA announced that media outlets were no longer allowed to spoil picks during this year’s draft, effectively ruining the best part of draft night.

Well, Woj certainly found a way to tip toe the line on the new scoop ban. The rule simply stated the pick could not be officially announced until it was announced at the draft. So, Woj flexed his impeccable mastery of the English language to announce every pick of the draft without making the pick “official.”

He started off with some pretty basic verbs in the top ten.

Nothing too exciting to get the night started, but as the first round went on, the verbs got a little more seductive.

“Determined.” There is absolutely nothing that will stand in the way of Phoenix selecting Zhaire Smith. Nothing (even though he was traded for Mikal Bridges a pick later).

For me, fixated is where it starts to get a little weird. But, he definitely saved his best stuff for the end of the round.

“Tantalized” and “unlikely to resist” top the list. At a point where a mere mortal would mostly concede to a lack of vocabulary, Woj pressed on to deliver his biggest blows of the night, capping off a win for big J Journalists everywhere.

The whole night was not only a big F-off to the rule, but to Woj’s former understudy, Shams Charania. Shams took over Woj’s old role at Yahoo once Woj left for ESPN and has beat him on the occasional scoop. But, not on draft day. That’s Woj’s time to shine, and boy did he. Woj was hitting on so many scoops at such an unparalleled rate that Shams was left practically speechless.

Woj had himself a night, and he knew it too. He went on SVP’s Sportscenter and dropped a subtle shot to those to tried to silence the poet.

“Just trying to follow the rules, Scott.”

Kings stay kings, and Woj is going to be around for a long time.