2021 NBA Draft: Spain's Usman Garuba, the best defender in the class, realizes two dreams at Tokyo Olympics

This potential lottery pick will be watching the 2021 NBA Draft from the Olympic Games

The best defender in this year's NBA Draft class did not pose for photos at the top of the Empire State Building this week. He will not stride onstage in a garish, custom-made suit to shake Adam Silver's hand at Barclays Center on Thursday. He has been "waiting, calling every day out, marking my days" in anticipation of this moment, he says, but he'll have to watch it from almost 7,000 miles away.  When other prospects wake up on draft day, Usman Garuba will be in the middle of a game against Argentina, playing alongside the Gasol brothers and other Spanish national team legends. The time difference means it will be Friday morning in Tokyo when the draft begins. On the phone from his room in the Olympic Village in between practice and team dinner on Tuesday, Garuba says he expects his teammates to wake him up for the festivities. The plan is to "tune in as a team." Garuba says he could have done the normal draft-preparation thing, crisscrossing the United States to conduct private workouts with potential employers. He understands that "my future is a little bit at risk because I could get injured," but insists he's not thinking about that. "I love playing for my country," he says, and "the atmosphere is something amazing," even with pandemic-specific restrictions in place.