Virtual NBA Draft a Throwback to '70s
@terrylyons - The "Virtual" 2020 NBA Draft to be based at ESPN Studios
By TERRY LYONS
BOSTON - There are a multitude of news reports about the upcoming 2020 NBA Draft to be staged this Wednesday, November 18th (7pm EST) from the ESPN Studios in Bristol, Connecticut. Of course, because of the Coronavirus, the NBA will follow similar protocols as its sister league, the WNBA, in staging the event, ahem, “virtually.”
Surely, it’ll be properly socially distanced with plenty of hand-washing and Purell. It’ll be staged “with an abundance of caution” and mask-up will be the key word. All rightfully so, and very important.
As the 2020 NBA Draft approached, one news report caught the attention of this reporter. It read:
The NBA Draft is going to be strictly virtual for the first time in league history, and that means adjustments are going to be necessary across the board if operations hope to run as seamlessly as they do in person.
Truth be told, the NBA conducted many a Draft virtually, certainly from its beginnings in 1946 through Disco days of the ‘70s. The ‘77 Draft, headlined by No. 1 pick Kent Benson out of Indiana, (selected by Milwaukee), was the last NBA Draft to be conducted “virtually,” via conference call. (Each team would be patched into one large call and selections were made over the phone).
Starting in 1978 through 1981, the NBA Draft became a “live” event and was conducted from various New York City hotel ballrooms, including the Plaza Hotel and the Sheraton Center on 7th Avenue. The ‘81 Draft was held in the ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Hotel and was headlined by DePaul’s Mark Aguirre (No. 1 to Dallas) and Indiana’s Isiah Thomas (No. 2 to Detroit).
A limited number of crazy fans attended the event and the USA Network televised the “action” with famed tv commentator in the late Jim Karvallas and Louie Carnesecca of St. John’s as the hosts.
The Hyatt Ballroom was all one level and a “Draft Board” of sorts was constructed with stenciled placards for the players’ names. The ‘81 Draft Board might remind you of the manually run Fenway Park scoreboard within the Green Monster, here in Boston.
Speaking of Boston, a trip down memory lane reminds this historian that Ms. Edythe Verdonck of the NBA league office was in charge of manually creating the name placards for each prospective draftee. NBA PR and soon-to-be Basketball Operations guru Matt Winick was running the entire event and assigned me (as an intern) to assist Ms. Verdonck with the posting of the draft cards as the teams made their selections.
I can remember, minutes before the Draft began (at about 10am EDT), saying that “we should make a placard for Danny Ainge, just in case someone decides to take him.” Ainge was already under contract with the Toronto Blue Jays and had made his decision to go pro in Major League Baseball, rather than the NBA.
Well, wouldn’t you know it! With the 31st overall pick, the eighth pick of the second round, the great Celtics GM Red Auerbach selected Ainge (out of BYU) and eventually signed him to a contract, buying him out from his MLB deal with Toronto. We were ready with Danny’s card and the “be prepared, attention to detail” culture of the NBA allowed for a “high five” on that crystal ball prediction.
The next season, with North Carolina’s James Worthy a lock to go No.1 to the Los Angeles Lakers (who had obtained the rights to the draft choice (Don Ford and a No. 1 to Cleveland for Butch Lee and the Cavaliers’ No. 1), the NBA Draft was staged for the first time in a big time venue, the Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden. (Note: The Felt Forum was the perfect venue at that time, and the league stayed with it for a number of years before mass renovations at MSG was a cause for a move or two).
Keep in mind, Worthy went No. 1 in ‘82, just three years after the Lakers had drafted Earvin “Magic” Johnson with the top pick. (That 1979 LA No. 1 selection was the result of a complicated 1976 trade involving combinations of players and picks for the then-New Orleans Jazz signing of former Lakers free agent Gail Goodrich, along with a multitude of other top picks).
Worthy didn't make it to New York City for the festivities as he was attending summer school at UNC, but the NBA Draft grew to the point where thousands of fans attended and cheered their favorite stars or booed selections they didn't agree with, especially when a team overlooked a local NYC-bred player or the New York Knicks (or NJ Nets) made a pick that wasn’t popular or a familiar name for the fans. Worthy did his media obligations via a speaker phone in the Garden press room.
At the Felt Forum, each team had its own Draft Table and two phone lines. It was quite a set-up. The NBA invited about a dozen of the top prospects, forecasted by NBA Draft guru in the late Marty Blake with some insights from key team personnel. Most of the time, the players in attendance were gobbled up on the front end of the first round, but sometimes, a player would fall and I’m thinking about Scott Hastings.
Before that draft, when interviews were being conducted and the players would do dozens of talk-backs to hometown or college town radio and TV stations, Hastings’ newlywed wife of two weeks was asked if she had any thought or insights. “Anywhere but New York would be okay,” she said honestly, being a Midwesterner and Scott hailing from Independence, Kansas via the University of Arkansas.
Wouldn’t you know it!
The New York Knicks selected Hastings with the 29th overall pick and he went in the second round, waiting all that time - not in a green room backstage - but in the front row of seats at the Felt Forum. He and his bride were halfway out the door to 33rd Street when he was summoned back into meet the mob of New York media.
The NBA Draft evolved and grew to unbelievable status for the one-time intern who witnessed the event at the Grand Hyatt. It was later staged right in the big-top of Madison Square Garden (1991) when UNLVs Larry Johnson went No. 1 and did more TV live shots than any human being in history as PR man extraordinaire Josh Rosenfeld escorted the top pick and convinced him he “had to do them.”
Eventually (and largely because of the 1992 Basketball Tournament of the Americas being staged in Portland), the NBA Draft took to the road. As the Dream Team practiced in San Diego, Shaquille O’Neal went No. 1 to the Orlando Magic at the Portland Coliseum. In ‘93, Michigan’s Chris Webber was drafted (by Orlando) and then traded about 10-15 minutes later for Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway. The ovation for Webber at The Palace of Auburn Hills in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan was stunning, especially when we staged a cool photo of Webber grabbing his new Golden State Warriors team cap while Hardaway accepted his Orlando hat, soon to team-up with O’Neal and the Magic.
We did get a great photo that night as the players were dazed and confused with the quick NBA transactions and a rude welcome to the business of pro basketball.
The event bounced around like a well-traveled NBA veteran - think Chucky Brown - to the likes of Vancouver, Minneapolis, Washington DC, Toronto, East Rutherford, NJ and to Barclays Center in Brooklyn where its found its home for the past few years until COVID-19 had its way with the sports calendar.
This year, tomorrow night in fact, the 2020 NBA Draft will be staged in TV studios in Connecticut. It’s a first for the NBA for Bristol, but the WNBA has previously proved the site quite efficient and effective. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and his Deputy Mark Tatum will trek up Route 84 to be on site, and that might not be as cozy as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s living room for the 2020 NFL Draft, but we’re all make exceptions and lowering the bar for the sports leagues.
Without a doubt, they are all pulling off minor miracles to continue their operations while hemorrhaging cash and planning for a very rough 2020-21 season ahead.
“Here, here,” we say to the NBA and ESPN, but remember there were about 31 NBA Drafts held “virtually” via telephone conference call with the results sent by Telex in the formative years of the NBA.
Back then, the great NBA scout and GM Eddie Donovan would drive to a gym to scout a key player, but to determine the others worth a good look, Donovan would spend the first quarter of the game, sitting in his car in the parking lot, listening to the game on radio. The masterful NBA legend would keep track of the other players’ names and how many times they were mentioned by the play-by-play man during his call of the game..
When old Eddie went into the game in the second quarter, he was ready!
With the work-outs, interviews, Draft Combines, psychiatric evaluations and analytics assisting NBA player personnel staffs now, maybe Donovan had a better methodology? Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley and even Dean Meminger were all pretty good picks by the late ‘60s/early ‘70s Knicks and proof much of the work is old-fashioned, in-person scouting.
Let’s see who goes No. 1 on Wednesday night. It’s sure to be fun and staged very well by the NBA and ESPN.