NBA draft: David Lighty goes unpicked
NBA draft night had to be a long one for David Lighty and his friends and family — without a happy ending — but the experience apparently hasn’t done much to shake the recent Ohio State grad’s positive outlook on life and his basketball future.
Lighty, a former Villa Angela-St. Joseph star and former Buckeyes guard, was not one of 60 players selected Thursday night. Several mock drafts had Lighty getting picked in the second round, anywhere from early in the second round to near the end of the draft. However, when Isaiah Thomas from Washington was called as the 60th and final pick by the Sacramento Kings, Lighty’s dream of playing in the NBA will have to be achieved through free agency.
Lighty sent this message out on Twitter late Thursday: “U will see me in the NBA I promise u that …”
Another message on Twitter from Lighty not long before the draft was completed: “Hey its life, told you Im still blessed”.
The 6-foot-6, 220-pound guard emphatically chiseled his name into the record books for the Buckeyes during his five years in Columbus, but that wasn’t enough to entice an NBA team to use a pick on the two-time News-Herald player of the year, All-Ohioan and Big Ten defensive standout.
Lighty set records for the most games played (157) and most games won (129) in OSU basketball history, and he is also only the third player in program history to have 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 300 assists in his career.
Lighty completed a whirlwind tour of working out for NBA teams in Detroit on Thursday morning. Overall, he visited 12 teams in 23 days, crisscrossing the country. He left the Motor City and came back to Northeast Ohio to watch the draft with his family.
Lighty saw his college teammate at OSU, Jon Diebler, get selected with the 51st pick of the draft by the Portland Trail Blazers.
Lighty was able to deal with not being drafted on Thursday better than some fans, as it turned out, and he had a message for those feeling sorry for him on his Twitter account.
“And everybody stop being so sad lol sheshhhh”.
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