Did ESPN's Chad Ford Change Old Draft Boards to Make Them Look Better? [UPDATE]

Mel Kiper’s mock NFL drafts in January and February of 2013, for example, had zero picks that wound up being correct, and each one was by an average of nearly 20 spots. After the 2012 Draft, he blasted the Seahawks for picking Russell Wilson because they already had Matt Flynn. Kiper will be cryogenically frozen 10 months a year and reappear on ESPN for Draft season from now until the end of time.

Beyond that, Ford writes that he compiles the Top 100 list after speaking with NBA scouts and general managers. Therefore, it’s not even his personal analysis that was getting scrubbed over, it was theirs. But players’ immediate successes and failures do not even necessarily mean that their rankings were right or wrong! This isn’t tennis or boxing where they’re competing one-on-one. Players can be a good fit for a particular head coach and/or set of teammates, but may flame out in other spots.

As Deadspin notes, ESPN has reverted the retroactive edits to their original form. However, before they were changed again, Redditor cantwegoback posted a screengrab illustrating the differences between how the 2013 list looked last night (left) versus shortly after the draft:

Whatever official explanation is given about all this will surely be satisfying to all.

UPDATE: ESPN’s released the following statement:

"After reviewing the post on Reddit today, we have found that changes were made manually to Chad Ford’s NBA Draft prospects rankings.   We have not been able to determine who made the changes, or when.  We have talked to Chad Ford, who strongly denies any involvement, and based on his past work and professionalism, we believe him.  Our review will continue but it is unclear at this time if we will be able to ascertain who was responsible."

MYSTERIOUS.