Lucas "Bebe" Nogueira, a Brazilian center who went No. 16 overall to the Boston Celtics and was later traded to the Atlanta Hawks, struggled to wear his Celtics cap as is the tradition for drafted players at the podium.
Nogueira's Afro was entirely to big to comfortably wear a fitted baseball cap, but he valiantly attempted to wear it properly as he made his way to the podium to be congratulated by NBA commissioner David Stern.
He placed it atop his admirable amount of hair, and it rested there comically while he shook hands with the commish and basked in the glory of being an NBA first-round draft choice.
Nogueira's rights were dealt to the Dallas Mavericks, who then shipped him to the Hawks along with forward Jared Cunningham for the 18th and 44th picks in the draft. The Mavericks wound up with Miami point guard Shane Larkin and Providence forward Ricky Ledo, who had one of the draft's most interesting routes to the NBA.
Ledo was one of the top high school prospects, and had committed to play for the Providence Friars in 2012-2013, before being ruled academically ineligible by the NCAA due to a lack of credits. Instead of transferring, Ledo stuck with Providence, missed the entire season, and then entered the NBA draft anyway.
Larkin, the son of Cincinnati Reds longtime shortstop Barry Larkin, led the Miami Hurricanes to victory in the ACC tournament last year, as well as the school's first-ever regular season ACC title. He carried the Hurricanes to the Sweet 16, when Miami's shooting went cold and they fell to the lower-seeded Marquette Golden Eagles.
Atlanta's total haul included German point guard Dennis Schroeder, Nogueira, Bucknell center Mike Muscala, taken with the 44th pick Dallas sent them, and Brazilian point guard Raul Neto.
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