One of the fun parts of any NBA Draft is hearing the rookies-to-be constantly compared to current and former pros. There’s always something of an 80/20 or 75/25 mix of who the draftee plays like, as well as who he looks like. For example, how many times have you heard Joakim Noah and Robin Lopez compared to Anderson Varejao? But if Lopez does like Cedric Benson and cuts his hair before the Draft, he could avoid any unfavorable comparisons to AV. (Remember Benson was always being compared to Ricky Williams around the time Williams was the NFL’s mascot for weed, so Benson cut his dreads before the Draft to end the Ricky talk.) Let’s look at the 2003 class and see which players NBADraft.net compared them to at the time:

(Note: Not every player was compared to someone, most notably Dwyane Wade and Darko.)

LeBron James = Magic Johnson (Popular pick at the time, and I still think ‘Bron would be more Magic-like if he’d gone to a better team out of high school. Magic lucked out and landed on a championship team his rookie year. If he’d gone to the Clippers instead of the Lakers, he might have been more of a 30-point scorer than a 15-assist distributor.)

Carmelo Anthony = Antoine Walker/Glenn Robinson (Twelve months ago people would have said this was crazy, but ‘Melo has had a lot of his flaws exposed since then.)

Chris Bosh = Tim Duncan/Kevin Garnett (Proven to be more KG than TD.)

Kirk Hinrich = Sam Cassell (Doesn’t yet have that automatic go-to move, and Hinrich is a much better defender than Sam.)

T.J. Ford = Kenny Anderson (When T.J. decides he wants to pass, this makes a lot more sense. Just don’t ever use this comparison around anyone from New York or you’re gonna hear about it for hours.)

Mike Sweetney = Elton Brand (As a Georgetown fan, I admit I thought Sweetney was gonna be a very good pro. If only he had Brand’s work ethic.)

Jarvis Hayes = Allan Houston (Injury-wise, sure.)

Luke Ridnour = John Stockton (Before you bust out laughing, this was an easy and popular comparison at the time, especially since both Luke and Stockton are from Washington and, of course, they’re both White. I’ve said for a long time that the Sonics would have excelled during the Ray Allen era had they gone to a Phoenix Suns-type system, with Luke playing the Steve Nash role. And since Nash is very similar to Stockton, the basic groundwork is there. Problem is, Luke just isn’t very good.)

Reece Gaines = Jim Jackson (Wherever Reece is, I hope he hasn’t pulled a Jim Jackson and gotten too diesel for his own good.)

David West = Derrick Coleman (This one came with the note “Less athletic, more heart.” West isn’t as versatile as DC, either.)

Boris Diaw = Bruce Bowen (If Bowen stopped working out, developed ball-handling and passing skills, and decided defense wasn’t his thing anymore.)

Travis Outlaw = Darius Miles (Fortunately for the Blazers this didn’t come true.)

Brian Cook = Stacey King (Was this an insult or a compliment to Stacey King? Looking at Cook now, I think he’s more Walter McCarty.)

Carlos Delfino = Manu Ginobili (Delfino does have the physical tools to be closer to Manu than he is.)

Leandro Barbosa = Gilbert Arenas (Agent Zero would see this and vow to give Leo 50 the next time they met up.)

Josh Howard = James Posey (I’ve heard promising things about Posey’s party game that leads me to believe he can hang with Howard. On the court? They’re not really the same at all, but since Howard wasn’t a hyped-up prospect I can see where the scouts downplayed him.)

Sofoklis Schortsanitis = Eddy Curry (You know him as “Baby Shaq,” the colossus from Greece. Seeing as he reportedly ate himself out of a pro league overseas recently, this makes all kind of sense.)

Mo Williams = Mike Bibby (And this is before anyone figured Mo would be a starting PG in the League taking shots away from his squad’s only All-Star in crunch time.)