Old NBA lottery spins
Only two games per day these playoff days, typically one of them isn't even a good one. I even saw Dalen Terry enter a game recently, had to tuck his 76ers jersey in for one possession. Possession ended, game ended, Terry untucked his uniform.
Terry was a first-round pick, No. 18 overall. Bulls coulda had MarJon Beauchamp, or been the first of eight NBA organizations TyTy Washington Jr.'s technically been part of. But that's the struggle inherent in the draft, identifying who works and who doesn't, who is a MarJon Beauchamp and who is somehow worse. I woulda taken Terry too, at No. 18, 6-6 and athletic and just turned 20. I thought the untucked jersey stuff was something Dalen could fix.
Two games per night. Could have used this time familiarizing myself with the 2026 draft lottery's prospects, developing a sense of this draft's depth. Maybe even begin to think about team needs ahead of late June, something I'm more certain with, or what rosters will look like with another contract extension in 2029 to consider.
However.
Someone named "Detlef" uploaded a bunch of old NBA draft lottery clips to YouTube, drawings I hadn't seen since they aired. Outmoded graphics and scruffy NBA general managers, the lifeline of a franchise spun in a single halftime, all before CBS or NBC returned to third quarter action.
1989 DRAFT LOTTERY
The computer images created for this broadcast likely cost CBS hundreds of thousands of dollars, which was a lot of money at the time.
Don't blink or you'll miss New Jersey turn into Chicago, the computer graphic invoice on this was the reason CBS refused re-sign Brent Musburger 11 months later.
The Ernst & Young partner who draws the envelopes said he was recognized on the street "for months" after the previous year's NBA lottery, which means, yeah, these things can totally be rigged, these men can absolutely be blackmailed:
This shot of the spinning hopper phased over the top of the anxious team representatives needs to be cut, slowed down, shared.
This is back when everyone chose their own team's envelope, so you could legitimately blame each general manager for not performing better at the NBA lottery drawing.
"This is the Clippers' fourth appearance at the lottery, Elgin [Baylor] says next year he wants to watch it on television." Elgin picked the wrong team for that.
Pat O'Brien says Kings GM Bill Russell "is leaning toward Glen Rice, no matter which pick they get, a surprise." A surprise that Bill Russell can just draft players even if they've already been drafted? Bill Russell can draft whomever he wants, whenever he wants? That is a surprise. Not a huge surprise, but still a surprise.
This is also back when picks four-through-nine were arranged via record even after the lottery draw, lacks a little drama this way.
Pat O'Brien mentions that the top-three picks happened to be seated next to each other at the table in consecutive years, so, fix, is, in.
The Kings won the top pick, did not pick Glen Rice, instead choosing Pervis Ellison. I could not think of a less-Glen Rice player than Pervis Ellison.
Who led the 1989 NBA draft in Win Shares?
The above photographed 21-year old finished tops in Win Shares from the 1989 NBA draft.
1990 NBA DRAFT LOTTERY
Right away I should tell you Elgin Baylor is here:
Elgin Baylor here, not at home. Not watching on TV. "Lottery veteran, Elgin Baylor," Pat O'Brien is the first to the line Doc Rivers echoed in 2000.
Because it is 1990, there is also a "kindler, gentler" dig, but I won't tell you what about. Kool Moe Dee is also in this, rapping inside what appears to be someone's study. Looks like Dr. Jason Seaver's office.
David Stern charges himself for the first time with opening all the envelopes. Tough to hold a room that way, or even get all the NBA expansion team mascot names correct.
(When this mistake happen, listen for further proof that white people love to clap their way out of awkward situations.)
Two teams stay where they are at, Seattle jumps eight spots (in an 11-team lottery), and everyone else drops a single spot, ensuring eight different slightly disappointed reactions.
New Jersey had the worst record and won the top pick and Nets analyst Bill Raftery interviews newly-promoted Nets GM Willis Reed, who dryly notes that "our guys worked real hard to get this pick this year."
Adam Silver would fine the Wizards back to AOL addresses if Brian Keefe said the same thing on Sunday.
Make sure security is tight with the Wizards prowl through Chicago on Sunday night, we can't have prying cell phone cameras catching sloshed Wizards brass toasting Bub Carrington for Bub's persistent role in earning the top pick.
Willis Reed chose Derrick Coleman tops overall, the consensus selection. Gary Payton led the 1990 draft in Win Shares, more than doubling DC's total.
1992 NBA DRAFT LOTTERY
SHAQDRAFT.
This draft was held at halftime of Game 7 of the Eastern semis, Knicks/Bulls, I remember watching but my father doesn't. He was out in the yard muttering something about what Charles Oakley was doing to Horace Grant, suggesting a strong (if unrepeatable) second half impetus for driving Horace closer to Oakley's superior activity level.
Dad likes to take halftime walks. He makes a real effort to keep strong profanity out of his house, never use R-rated words around the wife or kids, and it is to his credit that the way I was forced to learn about curse words in childhood was through the cable TV he let me watch unsupervised.
This draft is at NBA headquarters, and someone is wearing a cowboy hat.
Sixer boss Gene Shue is there, the only NBA player/coach/GM named after two things people wear darn near every day.
The Sixers get the No. 9 pick. Costas tells us that "Charles Barkley said if they don't get one of the top two picks they should trade him, unless they get Mourning or O'Neal." They got Clarence Weatherspoon, and traded Charles.
Of course nobody today would do what Charles Barkley did back then, nobody but Charles Barkley did what Charles Barkley did back then.
The Hornets jumped four spots and won the year before. Bob Costas reveals that before this draft the Hornet staff stayed in the same hotel rooms for good luck, and ate at the same restaurant as the year before, which is quaint, a restaurant staying open more than 11 months.
These are my favorite drafts, where several teams in a row drop a single spot and a single team jumps a ton of spots, revealing a row of disappointed faces, one after one.
The Hornets moved up six spots, more than anyone else in this draft, earned the right to draft Alonzo. What hotel was this? I'm going to check in and create my first online betting account with their Wi-Fi. And ask where Allen Bristow and Gene Littles ate dinner.
The Magic got to draft Shaq. And what a wonderful, muffles laughter, four seasons Shaq enjoyed in Orlando.
Shaq led the 1992 draft in Win Shares, as foretold by Jor-El.
Also, today I learned Tom Thibodeau was part of Jerry Tarkanian's staff in San Antonio, which meant Tom Thibodeau was also part of John Lucas' staff in San Antonio.
Thibs. You gotta let me write this book with you.
This is ex-NBA deputy Russ Granik, pictured internally acknowledging his ability to earn a living without a ball-hopper and/or lottery drawing in his life, let alone Karl Malone, completing before our eyes and on live TV Russ' final and to this date unregretted decision to leave the NBA.
2001 NBA DRAFT LOTTERY
The opening is somewhat uninspired: Eddy Curry can barely get up the floor in high school, the late Eddie Griffin looks far more unrefined than any of this week's draft prospects a quarter-century later. Shane Battier's top selling point is his role as a "proven leader," as if the 2001-02 Memphis Grizzlies will require any rah-rah speeches.
The 45-win Rockets set some records for winningest Western team without a playoff berth and all it got them was a No. 13 pick, you can watch GM Carroll Dawson live out the Alonzo Mourning GIF in reverse recognition of this.
The No. 13 pick was Richard Jefferson, not bad, but the Rockets traded him and two other first-round picks (Jason Collins, Brandon Armstrong) for the aforementioned Griffin, chosen by New Jersey at No. 7.
NBC didn't introduce the team representatives before drawing, which means SuperSonics coach Nate McMillan must react to getting the No. 12 pick and introduce himself at the same time. Seattle chose Vladimir Radmanovic, choosing wisely.
Dan Issel flew all the way to Secaucus knowing his Nuggets would lose a pick if it fell out of the top-5 because of an old Ron Mercer trade. An old Ron Mercer trade, Dan made. The pick stayed where it was supposed to be at No. 11 and here is Issel reacting. Mercer worked 37 games with the Nuggets before essentially being traded for $3 million, which was a lot of the money at the time.
Issel lost his pick to the man sitting next to him, Chris Wallace of the Boston Celtics, who earned the No. 10 selection, Joe Johnson. Chris Wallace chose Kedrick Brown with Issel's old No. 11 pick, Dan absolutely would have selected Troy Murphy with the slot. Hunch.
No. 9 is Detroit, very 2001 glasses on Joe Dumars. The Clippers jump up at least five spots after Cleveland takes L.A.'s No. 8 draw, Clipper rep Alvin Gentry is seen pumping his fist immediately via the producer's truck after Ahmad Rashad mentions Gordon Gund's charity for blindness awareness.
After Jerry Krause's entire 15-win season falls the farthest amount of spots, from the best odds at the top pick to No. 4, and after I'd finished throwing things around my basement apartment in Roscoe Village, the commercial break is sponsored by NetZero.
I forgot they cut to Doug Collins smiling and beaming after Washington won the first pick, Michael Jordan hired Doug days earlier to coach his team. Doug stopped smiling the first time he moved to shake Kwame Brown's hand and Kwame missed.
P-p-pau led this one in Win Shares.
1988 NBA DRAFT LOTTERY
This is the first lottery I remember, and I haven't seen it since that Friday (!) night in 1988, when the NBA stuck its NBA draft lottery between halftime of a Western semifinal Game 7 between the Jazz and Lakers in the spot they'd typically program a prime 'Dallas' episode.
Convoluted campaign, 1987-88, Pam dies to start the season and then they shoot J.R. again, cliffhanger airing seven days before this lottery.
They held the 1988 draft lottery at the American Museum of History, weird. At Friday night rates, too.
The Pacers hired a psychic to to tell them if they'd win the lottery and this is not the lottery results I'd ask a psychic for.
The psychic said the Pacers would win the top pick, instead the Pacers jumped five spots but only to No. 2. Geesh, some psychic!
Pat O'Brien and Warriors GM Jack McMahon point out that there are "four other Irishmen on the stage" and that's not a stage that this point, Pat, that's a bar. Eight is a pub. Nobody can count after 11.
Hersey Hawkins led the 1988 NBA draft in Win Shares. Mostly with Philly, who traded him for Dana Barros and Sharone Wright.
You knew this would end on Sharone Wright, somehow.
LATE FOR THE DAY
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