OKC drafts player with local ties by Matt Reynolds - posted Wednesday, July 4th, 2012 @ 6:18 am  E-mail Story |  Print Story  Several hours before the NBA Draft last Thursday, Pam Lighten sat with family members in her hotel room in Newark, N.J. and was planning to pack up and travel back home to Winnsboro. Lighten and other friends and family of college basketball sensation ,Perry Jones III, traveled north days before to be in the audience when NBA commissioner David Stern officially announced Jones being drafted. Up until a few days before the draft, that idea would have been perfectly full-proof regarding the once-projected top ten lottery pick. But just hours before the draft, rumors of an issue with the meniscus in a knee sent red flags up to NBA general managers, and sent Jones' draft stock pummeling. "We were all nervous, and we had decided to not even go because we worried about the red flag and what that meant to his draft status," Lighten, Jones' aunt said of draft day. ..... For the full story, subscribe to the The Franklin Sun's NEW E-Edition!