Fran Fraschilla is not quite sure why ESPN tabbed him, in 2004, to become the network’s go-to source for information on international basketball prospects. But he has embraced that role.
Two days before this year’s N.B.A. draft, Fraschilla landed in New York for meetings and rehearsals concerning Thursday’s broadcast. This is when he becomes what he calls the special-teams coach, charged with informing N.B.A. fans about players with consonant-filled names from the Baltics, or teenagers from the Mediterranean, or lanky projects from Africa.
And still, as he sat in the lobby of the W Hotel, his mind went wandering.