June 28, 1995
KG's Rookie Year
Leave it to the Clippers.
The only team in the NBA standing between the Timberwolves and the crown for ineptitude, exasperation and general boneheadness, Los Angeles' "other" basketball team did it again Wednesday night during the league's annual college draft. First, they passed up a chance to draft, allegedly, the next Michael Jordan. Then, after at least landing a solid player as consolation with the draft's second pick overall, they swapped him for a couple of guys selected much later.
After the Golden State Warriors, as expected, tabbed Maryland forward Joe Smith with the No. 1 selection, the Clippers' brain warp, er, trust went to work. They grabbed Alabama forward Antonio McDyess, a quick, hungry player expected to be among the first four prospects picked. But they passed on North Carolina guard Jerry Stackhouse, a versatile leaper who shares more with Jordan than just a powder blue uniform.
That enabled the Philadelphia 76ers -- so desperate for a shooting guard that they entertained brief notions of dealing for J.R. Rider -- to pluck Stackhouse and immediately remind people of the 1984 draft, when Jordan was picked third behind Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie. Oh, but the Clippers weren't finished. Two hours later, it was announced that they had shipped McDyess and little-used guard Randy Woods to Denver for small forward Rodney Rogers and first-round pick Brent Barry. In other words, they swapped the draft's No. 2 pick -- a potential superstar -- for a No. 9 (Rogers, 1993) and a No. 15. (Woods, the 16th pick in 1992, was included only for salary-cap considerations).
1 comment:
Jerry Stackhouse was really overrated. The best players from that draft went 4 and 5.
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