“The Saddest Place”: The BIG 3 Needs Cuts Before They Broadcast Their Draft

On Thursday night, Fox Sports 1 broadcast the BIG 3 Draft for the world to see. Unlike most drafts, though, one of the teams — Trilogy — didn’t even have a pick throughout the three rounds and the number of undrafted players jumped from 13 in 2017 to 61 in 2018.

Sixty…one.

Like, did they really need to have 43-year-old Horace Jenkins on the list?

Veteran reporter Jeff Pearlman was in attendance on Thursday and wrote about the experience on his website.

“Honestly, it felt wrong. And depressing…there was something pointedly disrespectful about the whole spectacle.” – Jeff Pearlman on the BIG 3 Draft.

It should be noted that his post — which should totally be read — was titled “The Saddest Place”.

Read it here.

They really need to consider having a round of cuts before the draft. They work the players out, so why not chop off the dudes that literally have zero shot of getting drafted?

The one good thing to know is that a lot of last year’s undrafted players made appearances in BIG 3 games at one point or another. With that said, there weren’t 61 dudes left out. At best, 10 of them get the call to fill-in or whatever, leaving 50 dudes watching at home. It’s a bummer, sure, but it could be avoided if they chop it down for next year. Explaining the careers of 80 players is impossible — but for 30 guys? That’ll make the whole thing feel more personal and save the dignity of a bunch of retired ballers.

Complete draft results can be found here.