This week’s Philadelphia City Paper cover story by E. James Beale takes an inside look at Temple’s Dionte Christmas as he readies for the draft. It’s an insightful look at what it’s like for a tremendous college player whose NBA prospects straddle the line between the guarantees of first-round money and the uncertainties of possibly going in the second round. After the jump, a few nuggets.

* Christmas was disappointed to learn last week that the 76ers had traded for Jason Kapono, another player with a singular talent for shooting the basketball. Beale broke the news to Christmas, and it’s clear the North Philly native had wanted to play in South Philly. All of which should come as no surprise, though it is interesting to discover the depth of Christmas’ disappointment in the heat of the moment.

* Christmas was cut from his 13-and-up neighborhood team, but rather than retreat from the sport, he was determined to get better. So he started shooting. And shooting and shooting. The rest is what we saw from the first player to lead the Atlantic 10 in scoring three times.

* To quote Beale: “Over the last decade, 10 players have been drafted with the last pick in the first round and 10 have been selected with the first pick in the second round. In theory, the difference between the 30th and 31st picks in the draft shouldn’t be huge. But if you ignore foreign players who were drafted and decided to stay overseas, every first-round player but one is on an NBA roster, while only four second-rounders are. It is literally twice as hard for the first pick of the second round to make the NBA than it is for the last pick of the first.” [The italics are ours, because that's one helluva stat.]

* Of course, making it as a second-round pick is possible — under the right circumstances, a la Michael Redd.

* The focus of pre-draft workouts can vary from NBA team to NBA team. But for a player like Christmas, it all comes down to how well he shoots the ball on a given day.

Like we said, very interesting and enlightening stuff. If (or when) Christmas’ name is called next Thursday night, Beale’s piece should provide some indication as to what the team that picks him might have seen (or didn’t see) when it brought him in.

Link: Dionte Christmas, on the bubble [City Paper]