DeJuan Blair was a first-round pick. There was no doubt about this from anyone — be it draft experts, coaches, fans, the Canadian Prime Minister or your Uncle Ronny. He was even slotted as a lottery pick by some.Here’s a quote from the man himself two months ago, courtesy of Will Leitch:

I’m an Internet freak and I go on all the draft boards, and nobody’s got me going second round. That’s almost guaranteed to me.

But as we saw last night, DeJuan Blair did not go in the first round. He went seventh in the second round to the Spurs, the No. 37 pick overall. Over at the Dagger today, E chimes in with this:

Yes, DeJuan Blair was that good. Playing in the best conference in the country — the tournament settled that, didn’t it? — against some of the best big men in the country, week-in, week-out, DeJuan Blair didn’t just rebound well. He rebounded at a level unseen in the past 10 years, and maybe longer. We’re not sure, because the relevant statistics don’t date accordingly. DeJuan Blair could be the best offensive rebounder of the last 20 years. He’s certainly in the conversation.

Blair was without question the best offensive rebounder in college basketball last season. Demonstrably so. And yet, despite apparently impressive pre-draft interviews and his sudden, impressive weight loss, Blair was snubbed. And snubbed. And snubbed.

All true. Which just makes his free fall all the more strange. From the Bulls perspective, I have absolutely no idea why they didn’t select him with their No. 26 pick. If they wanted James Johnson at No. 16. OK. Fine. DeJuan Blair is probably the better selection, but if they’re set on a guy, so be it.

But when Blair, a guy you were highly courting the entire pre-draft process falls to you at No. 26, why would you not draft him? It was a literal gift! Argh. Instead the Bulls selected Taj Gibson from USC. Look, this wasn’t an amazing draft for talent by any stretch. Gibson is likely never going to be a scorer for the Bulls.

So why not go with Blair, a guy you know can bang and bruise and rebound the crap out of the ball for you? A guy that dominated the No. 2 pick, Hasheem Thabeet on at least one occasion last season? If a role player is all you were going to get in this draft, why not grab one that was NBA-ready out the gate and that was at least assured to do something for you?

Perhaps his knees really are that bad. Perhaps that scared away enough teams not to take that risk. But outside of that, and until something else comes out about why he dropped so far, consider me absolutely stumped.