He is a victim of history. No one wants to be the team that drafted another Sam Bowie (the injury-prone center picked ahead of Michael Jordan in 1984) or Greg Oden (who was picked ahead of Kevin Durant and has barely stepped on the court in five years). So when the extremely lithe and slightly built Noel ruptured his ACL last year at Kentucky, it scared off the top of the NBA Draft. He was picked sixth by Philadelphia.
