|
NBA
Draft:
All
at Once Amazingly Addictive
By
Harvey Frommer
The
NBA draft is all the rage. Prospects are dissected, measured and weighed,
interviewed and analyzed, 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 arrives 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 (having first rights
to a player in your geographical region) 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 (yes that Phil
Jackson).
In the ensuing years,
all types 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 Wooldridge by Chicago (6th); and Eddie Johnson by
Kansas City
(29th).
Who
knows what the NBA Draft 2012 has in store. Stay
tuned.
|
