That’s a disappointment that Blair did not get an invite to sit in the Green Room at MSG for the NBA Draft. Something confirmed by a local article that confirmed he would be in Pittsburgh for the draft.

His final audition is Monday with Utah, followed by a trip to ESPN headquarters in Connecticut on Wednesday for some pre-draft appearances before returning to Pittsburgh for draft day.

“I’m glad I got through it,” Blair said.

I wonder where the draft party will be. You just know that he isn’t simply sitting in his family’s home for this night.

Mildly surprising that Blair did not get an invite. The rumors have been increasing that he would not slip past the 13th spot.

We have been tracking the DeJuan Blair situation pretty heavily over the last few week. Blair apparently may have a floor and that’s the Indiana Pacers. Blair has absolutely dominated at every stop he’s been at, but concerns about his knees are still very much front and center. The Pacers not so long ago took a chance on another player with supposed bad knees in Danny Granger, which worked out pretty good for the Pacers didn’t it? If Blair is still on the board at #13, don’t be surprised if it’s him rocking the Pacers’ draft day cap.

Blair, his agent and Pitt seemed to have done some damage control on Blair’s knee worries.

A pair of MRIs making the rounds amongst NBA teams appear to be easing some concerns about DeJuan Blair’s knees, according to his agent Happy Walters. Blair was red-flagged at the NBA pre-draft camp for the ACL tears he suffered in both knees while in college. He does not appears to have an ACL in either knee now, and there were concerns that he may struggle to stay healthy as his career moves on.

In response, Blair’s camp retrieved an MRI from November of 2008 done at Pittsburgh for doctors to compare with the MRI of his knees from the pre-draft camp earlier this month. The specialists found that there had been “no deterioration in the situation of his knees whatsoever over the course of the season,” which has been conveyed to the doctors of various NBA teams that are most interested in Blair at the moment.

Te MRIs were taken was after Pitt held Blair out of the Belmont game because of some swelling.

Going to Milwaukee with the #10 pick seems unlikely because they are still in fear of Blair’s weight. They ended up with the rights to Robert “Tractor” Traylor on draft night 1998 in one of the NBA’s worst trades: Traylor from Dallas for Dirk Nowitzki and Pat Garrity.

The Detroit Pistons website focused a piece on Blair mainly concerned with his weight.  I don’t see the weight as the big concern. In a piece I did for the Atlanta Hawks blog, the concern that is legit still remains those ACLs. I don’t think it should preclude teams from drafting him in the teens, but I could definitely understand the hesitation of teams in the top-10.