Some fun quotes from the New York Times:

The draft is Thursday. Fans are devouring mock drafts and player biographies and learning hard-to-pronounce European names. They are refreshing Web pages every few hours to read the latest insights from people like Givony, NBADraft.net’s Aran Smith and ESPN’s Chad Ford.

It should be a glorious time. It isn’t.

"I hate mock drafts," Ford said. "I just think they’re a joke."

To be close to the process is, apparently, to loathe it. The draft is a signature event for the N.B.A., a hype-filled evening of optimism and suspense. It is the night when teams’ intentions are revealed and fates are set.

The days that precede it, however, are filled with lies and obfuscation, misdirection and outright manipulation. Agents inflate their players’ value and trash the clients of their rivals. Team executives, fearful that another team will snatch their favorite prospect, spread false reports about a player’s workout, or his health, or his character.