A big week of predraft workouts for the Wizards got off to a slow start Monday with the day’s top prospect, Kansas guard and Baltimore native Josh Selby limited to observer status after straining his right quad in a workout for the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday.
“No mistakes today,” Wizards head coach Flip Saunders told Selby as the session concluded on the Verizon Center practice court.
Selby, a 6-foot-2, 195-pount combo guard who spent his first two years of high school at DeMatha, said it was frustrating.
“I also played a lot at Barry Farms,” said Selby, 20. “D.C. is like my second home. The fans and the guys treat me just like Baltimore treats me, just like one of their own so I would love to come here just to put on for the city.”
Yet, Selby’s relationship with his former high school – he finished his high school career back in Baltimore at Lake Clifton – doesn’t appear to be a warm one. Asked if he’d been in touch with Georgetown’s Austin Freeman, another DeMatha alum who worked out for the Wizards last week, Selby was frank: “To be honest, I haven’t talked to anyone from DeMatha quite a bit because I changed my phone number.”
Selby also got off to a frosty start at Kansas, where he was suspended for the first nine games and then struggled with a foot injury, averaging 7.9 points and 2.2 assists in a reserve role.
But like his relationship with DeMatha, Selby is honest about his disappointment with the Jayhawks and knows that is the biggest question that NBA teams have about him. It’s an easier question to answer than getting peppered repeatedly about twin teammates Markieff and Marcus Morris, who are also first-round prospects.
“They just want to see that the Josh at Kansas is not the Josh that they going to see in the NBA,” Selby said. “That’s the only thing that their concern is.”
With Selby sidelined, Texas freshman guard Cory Joseph was the only other point guard to work out. The other participants where James Madison forward Denzel Bowles, Tennessee center Brian Williams, Lincoln Memorial forward D’Mario Curry and Rhode Island forward Delroy James. Of that group, the 19-year-old Joseph was the most enthusiastic of the bunch and likely has the best chance of being drafted, and that would probably be in the second round. He’s at least drawn plenty of interest: he said his stop in Washington was his ninth – and that he has eight or nine more to go.
