Tennessee forward Nate Ament is projected to join Dusty May and the Dallas Mavericks in ESPN’s Final NBA Mock Draft 🍊
ESPN’s Jeremy Woo released his final NBA mock draft ahead of Tuesday’s first round, and has Ament landing with the Mavericks at pick No. 9.
“Ament’s draft range has remained wide,” wrote Woo. “Teams say he has been selective about scheduling workouts, declining to visit multiple teams in the top 10. The Mavericks and Bucks are two possible landing spots. If those teams go a different direction, he could slide.”
The six-foot-10 forward would join 2026 NBA Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg if he were to land in Dallas, and would be coached by former Michigan coach Dusty May.
May is finalizing a deal to become the Mavericks next head coach, and eliminated Ament’s #Vols in the Elite Eight this past season.
Tennessee center Felix Okpara and guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie were also slated in Woo’s prediction, landing at No. 40 (Boston Celtics) and No. 41 (Miami Heat) respectively.
Where do you want your favorite Vols to land?🤔
You have to wonder whether the Knicks get it done without Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges being battle-tested by the 2017–18 Tennessee Volunteers during the Battle 4 Atlantis.
USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving.
Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free.
I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these."
"They just come with the table, man."
They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner.
This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat.
I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then — I must report this calmly — the basket emptied, and a new one appeared.
"Did we…?"
"Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless."
Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined.
My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude."
Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished — an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man.
I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy.
Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived.
I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most.
Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.