Does this lede make sense to you?

I love Adrian Wojnarowski, but I'm confused by the first paragraph here. Is it written correctly?

HAVERFORD, Pa. – Around Roy Hibbert, he was surrounded with college kids who wouldn't have wasted a moment with the debate that consumed him for months. Stay in school, when you could've been a lottery pick? Sure, sure. They would've been nowhere near these USA Basketball Pan-Am Games tryouts, where sweating through two-a-days for nothing but the glory of the red, white and blue would've been a foolery in the face of a first-round NBA draft guarantee.

"People look at me dumbfounded, almost perplexed," Georgetown's 7-foot-2 center said. "They ask me, 'What are you doing? Are you dumb? I would've gone and took the money.' "

 

You're confused because it is horribly written -- as Woj is wont to do from time to time -- and Yahoo apparently wasted so much money on "talent" that it forgot to hire editors.

 

Wow. That is fucking awful.

 

K, I'm not crazy. Thank you.

(I do usually like Wojnarowski's work, though.)

 

oh come on, lighten up

we all write bad leads now and then

maybe not that bad

 

Why not just say, "Roy Hibbert was surrounded by ..."

 

How about this?

HAVERFORD, Pa. -- Roy Hibbert was surrounded by college kids who wouldn't waste a moment debating what consumed him for months: Stay in school or become an NBA lottery pick.
Sure, Sure. They wouldn't be anywhere near these USA Basketball Pan-Am Games tryouts, sweating through two-a-days for nothing but the glory of the red, white and blue -- foolery in the face of a first-round guarantee.

"People look at me dumbfounded, almost perplexed," Georgetown's 7-foot-2 center said. "They ask me, 'What are you doing? Are you dumb? I would've gone and took the money.' "

But what the hell do I know? I'm no Yahoo! writer.

 

No.

 

The fact that in the first six words he hits a major redundancy means no, it does not make sense. And it doesn't make sense, either.

 

(Yeah, I guess I could've worded my post less inquisitively and more declaratively...like, perhaps, "this does not make sense.")

 

Don't worry about it. I had to read the first sentence five times before I understand what he was trying to say. I thought words were missing or something.

 

I think I get it now. Is he saying that Hibbert was surrounded by non-basketball-playing college kids who were all telling him he was crazy for not taking the money...and that those kids, if they'd been in Hibbert's shoes, wouldn't have chosen to be at these Pan-Am tryouts?

(K, yes, that is it.)