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In honor of the NBA traveling to the Walt Disney campus in Orlando this month to complete the regular season and the 2020 NBA Playoffs, SBNation’s basketball sites have banded together to conduct a Disney Draft. The premise is simple: since the league and the House of Mouse are joining forces, what animated Disney character would you add to your team’s roster to bolster their chances and why?
Only animated Disney/Pixar characters were allowed. No non-native-Disney franchises outside of Pixar were eligible. We were not allowed to draft Marvel superheroes or Star Wars universe characters.
The Trail Blazers selected 17th out of the 22 teams in a randomly-determined draft order. Several hot selections—Maui, Elsa, and Mickey himself—were gone before we got to pick. That said, in classic Portland style, we’re fairly certain we got a winner!
The Blazers are on the clock, and here we go...
With the 17th pick of the 2020 Disney Draft, the Portland Trail Blazers select Mufasa from The Lion King.
We head to the podium, where Portland’s GM is being interviewed:
Mufasa is clearly the most NBA-ready character in this draft class. We anticipate he’ll be able to lift teammates to new heights with his fantastic physique and off-the-charts leadership skills. Once he gets his footing, he’ll be a fantastic voice in the locker room. We suspect he dropped so low because he’s a bit shaky running the break and makes questionable decisions in traffic, but with help from the coaching staff, he should develop those skills as his career progresses. At the end of the day, we feel quite confident that we got the steal of the draft. Any questions?
{unintelligible reporter rumbling}
Yes, we’ve heard armchair “experts” droning on about durability, but for the record, we have zero concerns about his longevity. We expect Mufasa to spend a long and fruitful career leading Portland to… excuse me, hold on a second.
{a Blazers official approaches the podium and whispers in the GM’s ear}
He WHAT?!? When??? What’s the prognosis?
{more whispering}
Dammit!!!
Uh...this press conference is concluded. We are quite happy with Hassan Whiteside as our starting center. His stats are off the charts. Have you seen them? You should look. No more questions at this time. Thank you.
Well, geez. Who could have seen that coming?
The front office may have made a mistake, but you can correct it. If you had the pick to do over again, knowing Mufasa’s fate in hindsight, who would you select instead and why? Share below!