The two-man R.O.Y. race.

Everyone around the Dime office is past the card-collecting phase of our basketball fan careers, but we still make a point to hit up the NBA’s annual Rookie Shoot at the Knicks practice facility in Tarrytown, N.Y. Why? Because in between the rooks getting snapped for their trading cards and team media guides, signing autographs and downing fruit and brownies, they’re standing around just waiting to be interviewed … Last Friday a few of us hopped in the H3 and made the trek, and we brought along a videographer, which means you can catch Christian’s Joan Rivers-style interviews on Dimemag.com over the next few days. Greg Oden talks about how attractive he is (or isn’t), Al Thornton discusses suicide doors, and Josh McRoberts manages to look 20 years older than he did the last time you saw him … The actual photo shoot takes place in a huge gym, with about a dozen different photo set-ups that the players rotate between. There’s some standard solid-color background stuff, one that looks like it’s in front of a garage, some stuff at baskets where they have to do dunks and layups, and some specialty shots — which is where you see hideous things like Spencer Hawes being put in a Wilt Chamberlain jersey and Aaron Brooks in a Moses Malone jersey. I hate to call out my Seattle guys like that — and it’s not their fault that they had to wear those — but it can’t go ignored. I can accept Oden in a Wilt uni much easier than Spencer “You Rang?” Hawes … Attendance was great this year, with pretty much every non-international draftee in the house: which meant no Yi Jianlian, no Marco Belinelli, and no Marco Belinelli’s girlfriend. Other than that, everyone you’d wanna see was there. The American draftees who weren’t there (or at least I never saw ‘em) were Ramon Sessions, Sammy Mejia and JamesOn Curry. Thaddeus Young was in the building, but he must have been on some covert-ops status. I spotted him just one time out by the front door … Oden and Kevin Durant were of course the centers of attention, and getting dragged around to every photo set-up with little time to stand around and chill. When they did get a free minute, Durant made a beeline for TVs hooked up to NBA Live 08. When Oden wasn’t in front of the camera, he was wearing glasses. Everyone talks about how old Oden looks, but he also looks like he could be David Robinson’s little brother … And in case you’re wondering, Oden said he’s wearing #52 because #20 is retired in Portland for Maurice Lucas, Zach Randolph had #50 at the time and Dan Dickau had #2. By the way, remember how the Blazers held up a 52 Oden jersey immediately after he got drafted? He must have known he was getting picked a couple days before the rest of us if he’d already had his number chosen … One thing I noticed right away about this year’s shoot was the large numbers of guys with no number on their jerseys. When I was up at Tarrytown last year, the only guy with no number was Kevin Pittsnogle, and he didn’t have a number because it wasn’t a lock that he’d make the Celtics roster (He didn’t). This year, a bunch of guys were number-less, including first-rounders Rodney Stuckey, Arron Afflalo, Jared Dudley, Morris Almond and Al Thornton. But for some reason, D.J. Strawberry — the second-to-last pick in the Draft — had a number … Corey Brewer has his number, but someone forgot his T’wolves shorts, because Corey was wearing everyday black adidas joints … Lined up against one wall were boxes stuffed with Santa Claus hats for every team. Not sure if the guys had to use them for photo set-up, but I saw a few guys walking around in them like they were cool. Gabe Pruitt had his Santa hat sitting on top of a Dodgers fitted. Marcus Williams snatched his Santa hat off half-a-second before our cameras started rolling for his interview … Warriors second-round pick Stephane Lasme looks like Keon Clark 2K7. He’s a beast from the waist-up, but his legs are so skinny that Kevin Durant would laugh at him … Like always, the Florida guys were attached at the hip. When we did get some of them to separate for interviews and what-not, Joakim Noah had to steal the show again. True story: I went up to Noah after one of his photo sessions and asked if he had a few minutes for an on-camera interview. Joakim said “Yeah, no problem.” When I stuck my hand out to introduce myself, a reggae song started playing (there was a DJ in the house) and Joakim busted out singing at the top of his lungs and dancing — and danced away before I got a word out … Another show-stealer, as usual, was Big Baby. A few minutes after breaking out the most intense “Lean Wit’ It, Rock Wit’ It” dance ever, Glen ripped the paper on one of the photo backdrops and almost ended innocent bystander Adam Haluska’s life when he slipped trying to do some crazy crossover … Insider scoop: the Sixers have new unis this year, but we weren’t allowed to get them on camera. I can say this, though; if I hadn’t been told beforehand that Philly had new unis, I wouldn’t have noticed … It was cool and kinda weird running into Aaron Brooks at the shoot. Me and him grew up playing in the same Little League football program and he was a couple years behind me at Franklin High in Seattle; Aaron’s older brother and I graduated high school and college together; my dad is cool with his dad, etc. I remember when Aaron was just a skinny short (and fast as hell) kid tagging along everywhere behind his brother. Now he’s taller than me, he’s filled out and he’s wearing an NBA uniform. Kinda crazy. We caught up for a minute in between his photo sessions, when he was worn out from the cross-country flight and waking up early and posing all day. And he hasn’t even really begun living the NBA life. In fact, none of the guys at the Rookie Shoot really had. And it’s only gonna get worse (and better) for them from this point …

A few notes: the rim is about 8 feet high, and Nick Young wanted Dominic McGuire to dunk on him

Junior Admiral

It was harder to get a pic of Daequan Cook not dancing

KD on the sticks.

That’s “Acie Law IV” to you.

Joakim

J-Dud; part of the no-number crew.

Interesting…

Christian getting his Gayle King on with Al Horford