Ralph Sampson a Celtic?

April 1, 1980

SAMPSON'S THE PRIZE

Either way, heads or tails, Boston or Utah, the coin flip this afternoon at 1 in Comr. Larry O'Brien's office in New York is for the whispering rights to Ralph Sampson. "I don't know what I'll call," said Celtic general manager Red Auerbach, who will be in the Big Apple personally to make the call for the first pick in the NBA draft this year.



"I'm just going to go by how I feel at that particular moment," added Auerbach, who wants to win and then hope that Sampson, the giant 7-foot-4 freshman center from Virginia, gets the message within the next two weeks that the Celtics would like to have him declare hardship and become eligible for the draft.

The Jazz won the right to be in the coin flip with Boston when their name was pulled from a hat in the NBA office yesterday in a blind draw with the Golden State Warriors. The Celtics will be contesting for the top draft spot because they own the Detroit Pistons' first choice (via the Bob McAdoo trade). The Pistons finished with the worst record in the Eastern Conference at 16-66. Utah and Golden State tied for the worst in the West at 24-58, necessitating the draw from the hat to determine which team would advance to the final against Boston.

"We definitely want a center," said Jazz general manager Frank Layden yesterday. "And, of course, we would like it to be Sampson." Scotty Stirling, the Golden State general manager, said he would have wanted Sampson if his team won today's coin flip, and he now hopes the Warriors can land Darrell Griffith if the Louisville guard doesn't go in the top two picks. "Sampson is a player that comes along just once in a decade," said Stirling. "You have to take him if you get the chance. If we don't get it (and now they won't), we'd like to get Griffith. We've got a decent center in Robert Parish. Griffith would be the player we feel could do the most for our team immediately."

Sampson has until 45 days before the draft (June 10) to declare hardship. After his team won the NIT title recently, he said he thought he would stay in school because he didn't get any pro offers. Well, no one in the pros has the right to talk to him until he declares hardship. But the feeling is that one way or another, he'll get the message that he'll be first to go if he enters the draft.

The Celtics were very disappointed that Washington finished so well. They have Washington's first choice (also from Detroit for McAdoo), and right up until the last two weeks, it looked as if that choice would be the eighth or ninth. But the Bullets heated up at the end to make the playoffs, and that pick will now be the 13th on the first round. s”We won't get the same player at 13 that we could have gotten around eighth," said Auerbach. "I don't think the same quality still will be there."

However, it still seems the Celtics got some very lucky results from the trade John Y. Brown engineered with the New York Knicks a year ago. Brown passed on the Celtics' first three picks, all on the first round (3d, 9th and 21st overall), to the Knicks, who selected, in order, Bill Cartwright, Larry Demic and Sly Williams. The Celtics bounced back by turning McAdoo over to Detroit for M.L. Carr, the No. 1 or 2 draft choice overall this year, plus the 13th overall.