The NBA draft is like Times Square, all lit up, lots of neon flashing lights, all that energy.

Not for San Diego State's Kawhi Leonard, not on draft night, where he was left sitting, found wanting, taken and traded.

The NBA draft for the Aztecs' power forward was more like a dimly lit back alley.

It was difficult to sit here and watch the NBA draft back there, and not feel bad for the 6'7" rebounding-defensive specialist, who was the engine that drove San Diego State to a record 34-3 season.

Leonard, who controlled college basketball games by going for the ball off the glass, making the big outlet pass, and finishing plays with slam dunks, was a spectator, along for a downhill ride.

I found myself sitting here in San Diego, angry at the people back there, in Newark, New Jersey, at the Prudential Center, the arena where the draft was held.

I was steamed that a good kid, who worked so hard, had to sit there and wonder why he was bypassed, pick after pick. He was not taken in the top six, as many had projected. He wasn't taken in the top ten, as most would have thought. He was not even taken by any of the lottery teams, the 14 less fortunate franchises that missed the playoffs.

Leonard finally went with the 15th pick, and I felt it was a good team to go to. He, like the Indiana Pacers who chose him, were all about teamwork, grinding defense, and playing the game the right way.

Minutes later, he was traded away. Indiana dealt him to the San Antonio Spurs, a once proud, now fading franchise who will be best known for a team that won championship trophies years ago.

Kawhi won't be playing for a bright young Indiana team building towards better days with lots of players that match his persona. Instead he winds up with an aging Spurs team, bounced out of the playoffs in the first round, surrounded by 30-plus-year-olds like Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli, whose best years and games are in the rear view mirror.

Why, I kept asking myself, why would so many NBA teams bypass the do-everything Aztec? Every NBA exec sees the stat sheets, 15 points a night, 10 rebounds a game. Every NBA club had access to scout him, and technology to look at all his video. A few even had the chance for a meeting and a workout.

Maybe it was Leonard's frame, and the question if he could be an explosive leaper, going against bigger and more athletic power forwards. Maybe it was the lack of a true offensive game, outside shooting to the point. Maybe the put back baskets he got against BYU or others in the Mountain West Conference teams, would wind up as blocked shots and rejections against the leapers down around the block in the NBA.

Maybe they just don't know the kid well enough, how the motor runs all the time, what a gym rat he is, how hard he works.

And maybe it is time to blame a few people too. His agent, Brian Elfus, limited his workouts with clubs. I was told Leonard was told not to work out for clubs if he was matched up against other potential power forward draft picks. He blew off some workouts. All that he did in workouts in Las Vegas prior to the NBA Chicago camp seemed to go for naught. He didn't play either in the Chicago predraft camp. NBA people could not evaluate him man-on-man against the other power forwards they were considering.

What happened?. As Kawhi went into hiding, virtually all the European big men visited clubs and worked out. And that's why three big Euros were taken early in the first round, while Kawhi sat quietly, stoically, and suffered in silence.

And the excitement of finally being taken 15th is now offset by this trade to a badly aging club.

Yes, he will play in the NBA, but it will be for a lot less money than he could have had, if he had worked out, competed, and gotten drafted earlier.

Just think, if he had stayed one more year at San Diego State, he might have become bigger in the upper body, become more skilled offensively, impressed more people with another successful season. And maybe he would have been represented by someone better than the guy that hid him from NBA teams and hurt him on the draft night.

Maybe Kawhi Leonard could have been the next Charles Barkley a year from tonight, at the top of the draft board, rather than drifting down and then getting dealt. He winds up on a Spurs team loaded with a bunch of 6'7" forwards who play defense but don't score much, and surrounded by guys age 35 and breaking down.

Aztecs coach Steve Fisher, who did so much on the kid's behalf at SDSU, maybe should have exhibited tough love and pitched him harder to stay. Maybe the agent, who had the kid turn his back on the San Diego media in the weeks leading up to the draft, will see now his own reputation has been damaged. Good luck getting your next big-name client.

Kawhi Leonard will have to prove himself all over again, just like he did to those in the Pac 10 and Big 12, who didn't recruit him. His DNA will allow him to do that. It is a shame people around him didn't do a better job on his behalf.

The kid deserved better than this. The good kid got a bad deal from his own people. The kid got a worse deal from the NBA. Kawhi Leonard loves basketball and loves his family. He will have better days. But this was a disappointing night for him, and everyone around him, and the legion of Aztecs, who enjoyed him.

It should have been a night in neon lights near Times Square. Not a night in a side alley, with broken lights, and probably a broken heart.