(S23) - PT2 - Draft Day

[JuOSu]

Drafts are always a very interesting thing. My first draft was an incredibly special and unique one for me. I was not really around for very long yet and I did not have a huge clue about how the league works and what this was going to be like here. I was surprised to see that I had a really decent shot to be picked in the first round, thanks to being really enthusiastic early on. I ended up having great conversations with some of the GMs and thought that there were a few teams that were really interested in me. At the time, I really got along very well with one other player in the draft, Benson Bayley, who I bonded over wrestling with and we became good friends. Through that, we had a small dream of being taken by the same team, which suddenly seemed like a possible thing, as San Jose had two draft picks back to back. It seemed like they were ready to take Bayley already, so I was hoping to also be picked by them, but instead they ended up picking a kicker. It really disappointed me and I think it gave me the motivation I really needed, to be really great and to have the type of career that I ended up having, leading to eventually being inducted into the hall of fame.