There were All-Stars on the board, long since selected. Starters had been drafted, and solid rotation players.
A fair number of future busts had heard their names, too, before Isaiah Thomas did in that 2011 NBA Draft. By the time the Sacramento Kings selected the 5-foot-9 guard, 59 players had preceded him.
Thomas was the final pick in the draft, and maybe the best ever to go last.
“There ain't gonna be another last pick like that,” Thomas told reporters last summer, and he probably was right. In seven NBA seasons, the free-agent guard has averaged 18.