WHAT??!?!

I’m surprised he didn’t at least wait until he saw how the draft shook out – the stories I’ve read had actually been fairly upbeat about his workouts, and the late first round is nothing to sneeze at.

But I do think you’re way out of line on the Drejer comparison – Drejer jumped ship in the middle of the season, which is a really shitty thing to do to your team. Leaving after the season to go pro is completely different, in my opinion, and while I find his decision on a destination curious, pro is pro. To me there’s no substantive difference between leaving to go to the Lakers or to Panathinaikos.

If a team thought they could convince him to come back?

… stabbed the team in the back, left them hanging mid-season, and demonstrated himself to be human garbage. He also had motivation issues, played “soft” and was in general an embarrassment to Gator hoops.

Not a fair comparison to Nick, who’s played hard in every game he’s ever had, was a much better player in every sense of the word, and completed two tours of duty under miserable conditions without complaint, often taking the team on his back.

And hey, at the end of the day, Nick wants to make money. Nick wasn’t so much about being a Gator as he was about starting his career as quickly as possible. In terms of turning down the NBA for Greece, I think Nick displayed some business sense. He knew any career in the NBA would be short-lived and less lucrative, so why not maximize each year of his youth by playing in an environment conducive to his success? That’s smart.

Nick never led anyone on, never told fans he’d be around for the long haul, even if his slow step and lack of overall athleticism seemed to loudly scream “4 year player”. Unfortunately for us, Nick is more what UF can do for him, than what he can do for UF. That is the only negative mark on his record. And as far as I’m concerned, I’ll wish him luck and thank him for his contributions while he was wearing orange and blue… but I’m probably not going to spend a lot of time looking back and cherishing his memory as a college player. We be movin’ on, fellas.

Drejer left midseason to cash in with a Euro team. Calathes leaves after the season to cash in. I’m not saying they are exactly similar, but remember Calathes spent last summer in Greece. Did he have a prior relationship with a team? Did he start one then? Did he have discussions with them, and did that lead to him declaring? Drejer did all of those things before he shipped out. Wouldn’t Calathes?
My first instinct is not to give Calathes the benefit of the doubt. To me, this move makes it seem as if Calathes was looking at Greece since last summer. That’s my issue with it. You can’t play the season you’re in if you keep looking at something else.