Any chance of Weis coming to the NBA died that day in Sydney. With "Le Dunk De La Mort", Vince Carter had ended the French center's NBA career before it even started. I was 100% sure that was the last I'd hear of the ill fated 15th pick in the 1999 NBA Draft. Then in the 2008 Draft the Knicks drafted Italian forward Danilo Gallinari and all those thoughts of Weis came rushing back. I believe "Great more Eurotrash to get dunked on with a fresh pair of chin nuts and then decide to not come over" were my eloquent words once the Gallinari pick was announced. That was subsequently followed by me trying to take down a telephone pole with angry and spiteful kicks. Spoiler alert: The telephone pole won. It wasn't that I particularly thought Gallinari was going to be a bad player. He had ties with then coach Mike D'Antoni and seemed to be a good fit even if there were other players on the board I preferred. I was more upset that his drafting got me thinking about a man I'd tried so hard to forget. As I tried to wipe my mind clear of Weis again, this unfathomable headline appeared no more than a month after the 2008 Draft:
I hope you enjoyed this first installment of Draft Rights Retained even if the first profile was of a guy whose particular rights are no longer so. I will be going over every player whose draft rights are still under control by an NBA franchise, no matter how idiotic their retention may be. This series will be drawn from a list on RealGM.com, a resource that every sports fan should be aware of. I hope this series entertains you, enlightens you, and when the June 26th NBA Draft comes and goes, I wish that if your team goes the stashing route it ends up with a Manu Ginobili and not a Frederic Weis.
You can follow Trevor Utley on Twitter @TREVORutley or check out his recently dormant Tumblr THE CONTINUOUS CARDBOARD FIRE.
Image Credit: Weis over Artest (nydailynews.com), Weis trade for Ewing Jr. (nypost.com)
Video Credit: Carter over Weis (MT13ful- Youtube)