Time marches on, doesn’t it ?
The National Lacrosse League Draft was staged this week and the Colorado Mammoth selected Owen Sounder Adam Jones third overall.
The last time I saw Adam Jones play a game live was in 2007 when he was picked up by the Woodsmen for the President’s Cup hosted here in Owen Sound.
There’s an age old sporting term talking about dominant players, whereby they are referred to as ” a man amongst boys “.
The 2007 Presidents Cup was amazing because the boy, Jones, who was 16, maybe 17 at the time, was the boy amongst men and was as good as any player in that tournament.
In fact, in the crucial semifinal game, trailing by a goal, the Woodsmen designed their last minute-potential game tying attempt to go to Jones, who delivered a rocket-like shot that smacked the goalpost, but agonizingly stayed out of the net giving the Outlaws the win.
There was no doubt then, and for some long before that moment, that Adam Jones would be among the best lacrosse players in the world,
The interesting part to me is that he was selected third overall and not first.
Jones reasons the needs of Philadelphia and Rochester who had the first two picks may have required them to go in a different direction.
Regardless, Jones relates he’s overjoyed to be going to Denver and states the players picked in front of him are both terrific players.
I don’t know a lot about lacrosse, but if Kevin Crowley & Stephen Keogh are better than Adam Jones, then this might have been the greatest draft in NLL history.
I’m Fred Wallace