In what the league is calling “an unfortunate and unlikely confluence of errors,” the NBA accidentally drafted Grammy winning saxophonist Boney James.
NBA Director of Draft Processing Brian Stephens explained, “As this year’s draft was beginning, we also welcomed thirty new summer interns into our office. Due to the unusually high number of interns, some were placed at desks that were not originally designated for intern use. It appears that one intern, Joseph Stokes, was placed at a desk where the computer access was several levels higher than what would normally be allowed for interns.”
NBA Director of Information Systems Cameron Lawson continued, “The workstation computer in question did not have it’s access downgraded after the departure of it’s previous user, a draft analyst. Stephens had not yet been through our computer systems training when the breach occurred. Although no personal, private, or corporate NBA information was compromised in the breach, the user had access to systems he was unfamiliar with. In a technical sense, he was doing the wrong thing in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Intern Joseph Stokes apologized for his actions and said he was simply trying to do an internet search for concert tickets when the error occurred. “I was searching for tickets for my favorite artist, Boney James, and I got turned around. When Ticketmaster said that no tickets were available, I thought I was going to a secondary ticket market website. Somehow I got into the NBA’s draft system and I entered Boney James into the draft. I can’t believe I did that!”
When explained that Boney James is a similar name to Bronny James, LaBron’s son and this year’s 55th overall draft pick, Stokes said, “I haven’t heard of Bronny James until now.”
Saxophonist Boney James took the error in stride. “When I got the draft notice, I thought this was some kind of crazy joke that my agent was playing on me,” he laughed. “I called him up and he swore that he wasn’t pranking me this time. So I called the NBA office to find out what happened, and they explained the mistake to me. I thought they were sending me out to play for the Utah Jazz, you know? Crazy stuff, man, because I haven’t heard of Bronny James until now.”
This was the NBA’s first error of this kind since actor Michael B Jordan was accidentally selected in the 2010 draft.
