Being an NBA analyst isn’t the easiest job especially when it comes to creating mock drafts. You have to have an extensive knowledge of the college players and have keen insight into how they’ll perform once they become professional. And… you have to post these thoughts for the world to see and of course be subject to ridicule if you’re wrong. Still that’s the job and should you choose to take it, you have to deal with whatever happens, NOT change your original analysis just to appear right later. Enter ESPN’s NBA analyst Chad Ford. If you’re an NBA fan chances are you’ve read his work at some point or another, and many of us trust his analysis. Well Deadspin along with the help of Reddit users have discovered Ford retroactively changed his mock drafts.
Ford reportedly moved up players who turned out to be NBA stars and dropped those who’ve become busts. Here’s the breakdown, by year, of how Ford edited his draft boards—and when, per archives at The Wayback Machine, those edits were made via Deadspin:
2009 (rankings page edited between Feb. 8 and Apr. 27, 2012):
James Harden moved up from #6 to #3. Jrue Holiday raised from #8 to #6. DeMar DeRozan improved from #10 to #8. Ty Lawson goes up from #15 to #11. Hasheem Thabeet, Jonny Flynn, Eric Maynor, and Austin Daye all got dropped.
2010 (rankings page edited between Oct. 9 and Nov. 5, 2012):
Eric Bledsoe moved from #13 to #11, swapped with Xavier Henry. Avery
HenryBradley moved from #14 to #12, swapped with Cole Aldrich. Jordan Crawford, #19 to #16. Luke Babbitt dropped from #16 to #17, Devin Ebanks dropped out of the top 20, and Kevin Seraphin brought into the top 20. Damion James moved up a spot from #20 to #19.2011 (rankings page edited between Oct. 9, 2012, and June 14, 2013):
Tristan Thompson dropped from #6 to #7, swapped with Kawhi Leonard. Klay Thompson boosted from #11 to #8, swapped with Jan Vesely. Kenneth Faried raised from #14 to #10, with Jimmer Fredette dropping from #10 to #12, Alec Burks from #12 to #13, Bismack Biyombo from #13 to #14, and Iman Shumpert magically showing up in the top 20.
2012 (rankings page edited between Aug. 31, 2012, and March 28, 2013):
Damian Lillard rises from #8 to #4. Thomas Robinson drops from #4 to #6, and Dion Waiters and Harrison Barnes each fell a spot. Austin Rivers fell from the the 14th spot to not being on the list at all. Kendall Marshall also fell out of the top 20, with Tyler Zeller and Maurice Harkless taking their places.
2013 (rankings edited within the last three months):
Giannis Antetokounmpo leapt from 17th to 9th. Michael Carter-Williams rose from #9 to #7. Jamaal Franklin, Shane Larkin, Sergey Karasev, and Lucas Nogueira all vanish from the top 20. Their replacements are Gorgui Dieng, Tim Hardaway Jr., Mason Plumlee, and Rudy Gobert.
According to Deadspin, ESPN has since reverted the changes since the article blew up. Sketchy, sketchy, sketchy…
