Woodside not nervous about NBA Draft
Published 4:23 pm Thursday, June 25, 2009
Albert Lea’s Ben Woodside has done all that he can for the time being to impress an NBA team to draft him. Now he has to wait and see if one was impressed enough to draft him.
Woodside has spent the past few months zig-zagging across the country to team workouts for the Spurs, Heat, Jazz, Pistons, Bulls, Jazz, Nuggets, Blazers, Timberwolves and Kings.
The big moment comes tonight for Woodside as the NBA draft will take place in New York.
“It’s been fun and it’s been a great opportunity for me,” Woodside said. “I’m not nervous at all.”
If his name were to be called, Woodside said it would probably be one of the best basketball moments of his life.
“I’ve worked hard to try to put myself in that position,” Woodside said. “I’d be really thankful and really blessed if my name got called.”
Woodside’s name isn’t on many of the draft boards put together by NBA analysts, but he said the reaction from the teams he has worked out for has been positive.
“I’m getting good feedback,” he said. “I think I surprised a lot of teams.”
The recognition Woodside received in his senior season has helped him as he tries to find his way on to an NBA roster. With ESPN airing the Summit League tournament championship where he hit the game-winning shot and Woodside scoring a NCAA tournament-high 37 points in the first round against Kansas it added to his exposure on a national level.
Woodside acknowledges he isn’t expected to be taken in the draft, but even if he’s not drafted Thursday there will be other opportunities.
If Woodside goes undrafted he would be a free agent. He will likely take part in NBA summer league games in July to make one more impression.
Woodside has been living in an apartment in Chicago and working out at a gym downtown. His family is in town to watch the draft with him this evening.