Few things in sports media are more deserving of mockery than mock drafts, those annual exercises in ignorance and misdirection.
Then again, few things in sports media are more popular. For websites desperate for clicks, for sports talk radio shows anxious to fill time, for fans seeking conversation starters at water coolers and watering holes, they are catnip.
And they are everywhere. Few self-respecting sports publications or websites dare go without one before the NBA or NFL draft, for fear of failing the public's interest. And fantasies.
"It's gotten to be lunacy, to tell you the truth," said former Pacers president Donnie Walsh, who built championship contenders by ignoring the general consensus of the mock drafts.