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Tales
from NBA Draft history 2015
Tales from NBA Draft History 2014
Amusing, Amazing, Addictive, Audacious: The NBA Draft (2013)
NBA
Draft History
By
Harvey Frommer
Yesterday’s star – George Mikan
The
NBA draft this 2017 version seems more frenetic than ever.
Prospects are dissected, analyzed, and compared to heroes of
yesteryear. There
is the pre-draft camp, the endless talk show hustle as well as fantasy
drafts.
Preceded by hype, hope and hoopla, the NBA Draft finally will finally
arrive
with a cast of hundreds of personalities, nationally televised hour
after hour.
And then there is the endless post-draft commentary.
Once
upon a time things were quite different in a simpler world
and a smaller NBA. The first draft in 1947 saw first-round selections
made by Pittsburgh,
Boston, Providence, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago,
Washington and
Baltimore. No name from that first-round faraway time (aside from
Knicks
draftee Walt Dropo, who went on to a distinguished Major League
baseball
career) had any kind of real basketball impact.
The
records from that primitive time are so shrouded in a time
warp that a couple of the players drafted in '47 like Bob Alemeida and
George
Petrovick have a question mark next to their name signifying a lack of
information as to the college they played for.
A
few non-first-round players went on to make a name for
themselves in pro ball like Andy Phillip out of Illinois, Jim Pollard
from
Stanford, Bob Kurland of Oklahoma A&M, and Red Rocha who had played
at
Oregon State.
A
footnote to NBA history is Tony Lavelli of Yale, taken by Boston
in the 1949 Draft. He went on to play the accordion for the Celtics at
half
time, sometimes. But contrary to rumors, his musical skill was not one
of the
reasons for Boston drafting him.
The
1950 Draft went 10 rounds for some teams and 12 for others, as
a few teams lost interest. Territorial picks were sometimes much fought
over
and debated. The exclusive right to draft a player who came from a
team's
geographical region gave Philadelphia the legendary Paul Arizin in 1950.
A
couple of others who went on to fame and glory were picked in
that draft: Bud Grant (NFL) by Minneapolis and Bob Cousy by Tri-Cities.
The
1951 NBA Draft lasted 12 rounds, but most teams stopped picking by then.
The
First Round went this way:
Team
Player College
1
(Baltimore) Gene Melchiorre, Bradley
2
(TriCities) Mel Hutchins, Brigham Young
3
(Indianapolis) Marcus Freiberger, Oklahoma
4
(Ft Wayne) Zeke Sinicola, Niagara
5
(Syracuse) John McConathy, NW Louisiana
6
(NY Knicks) Ed Smith, Harvard
7
(Boston) Ernie Barrett, Kansas State
8
(Rochester) Sam Ranzino, North Carolina State
9
(Philadelphia) Don Sunderlage, Illinois
10
(Minneapolis) Whitey Skoog, Minnesota*
*The
pick of Skoog was a Territorial one.
In
the sixth round, the New York Knicks plucked Al McGuire from
St. John's. The last player picked was John Burke of Springfield,
Massachusetts
by Baltimore in the 12th round. By 1966, the territorial selections
were
eliminated. A year later, the New York Knicks used their fifth pick to
get Walt
Frazier and their 17th to obtain Phil Jackson.
In
the ensuing years, all kinds of marquee players and also-rans
have made their way onto NBA rosters through the draft. In my opinion,
the 1970
and 1981 NBA Drafts rank among the all-time best yielding bumper crops
of
players.
The
1970 NBA Draft yielded such greats as Dave Cowens by Boston
(4th); Pete Maravich by Atlanta (3rd); Bob Lanier by Detroit (1st);
Calvin
Murphy by San Diego (18th); and Geoff Petrie by Portland (8th).
The
1981 draft included such gems as Isiah Thomas by Detroit
(2nd); Mark Aguirre by Dallas (1st); Buck Williams by New Jersey (3rd);
Tom
Chambers by San Diego (8th); Rolando Blackman by Dallas (9th); Danny
Ainge by
Boston (31st); Kelly Tripuka by Detroit (12th); Orlando Woolridge by
Chicago
(6th); and Eddie Johnson by Kansas City (29th).
Who
knows what the NBA Draft 2017 has in store. Stay tuned.
About
the Author: One
of the most prolific and respected sports
journalists and oral historians in the
United States, author of the autobiographies of legends Nolan Ryan,
Tony
Dorsett, and Red Holzman, Dr. Harvey Frommer is an expert on the New
York
Yankees and has arguably written more books, articles and reviews on
the New
York Yankees than anyone. In 2010, he was selected by the
City of
New York as an historical consultant for the re-imagined old Yankee
Stadium
site, Heritage Field. A professor for more than two decades in the MALS
program
at Dartmouth College, Frommer was dubbed “Dartmouth’s Mr. Baseball” by
their
alumni magazine.
His newest
coming this fall is THE
ULTIMATE YANKEE BOOK,
PRE ORDER
from AMAZON:
http://www.frommerbooks.com/ultimate-yankees.html
