NBA, NBA Draft, Video / Jun 16, 2009 / 2:37 pm

NBA Draft Promises Could Cost You The Next Paul Pierce

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In a candid interview after an NBA draft workout yesterday, Bobcats coach Larry Brown talks about how a draft promise kept the Sixers from selecting Paul Pierce, after he unexpectedly slipped in the 1998 NBA Draft.

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  • K Dizzle

    great interview

  • blah

    who did they draft instead that year? i can’t watch the video.

  • Patrick Cassidy

    Seriously, kill me … we passed on Paul Pierce because of a promise made to Larry Hughes and because we didn’t want Tim Thomas to have to compete for minutes???

  • http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_baseline Chris Littmann

    K Dizzle — Glad you liked the interview. We’ll continue to have a lot more on The Baseline (http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_baseline) or you can just subscribe to the YouTube account on that video.

  • fallinup

    Wowza…now that woulda been a hell of a lot better of a 2001 NBA finals with Pierce in the Philly lineup.

  • Celts Fan

    @Fallinup, don’t think Pierce woulda been there any longer than Stackhouse or Hughes. Young PP woulda butted heads with AI and been shipped outta town like so many of his other running mates.

    Another reason you never make draft promises, Mr. Candace Parker, Sheldon Williams. Atl couldn’t use BRoy though, right?

  • fallinup

    @ Celts

    True Dat.

    But damn… hind site is indeed 20/20

  • insider

    Dunleavy gave a draft promise to Yaro Korolev. At least he can’t mess up this year.

  • Kudabeen

    I’m with fallinup

    The revisionist historians will always have changes to make. I understand what he is saying. Sixers envisioned a big guard that can run the offense as well as play off of Iverson. Hughes wasn’t terrible, but he had much more on him than basketball.

    Also the lame thing about the sixers is that they traded Larry in his second year for what amounted to Kukoc. He amounted to a taller less effective Iverson more so than a versatile lead guard. He is a bad bad shot maker…And he takes a lot of bad shots.

    Every team has horrible draft decisions. If you look at the drafts from the last 3 years and see how many teams still have those guys or got any value for their pick by comparison to the players picked afterward it is incredibly poor results. The draft seems like a crap shoot or GMs and front office people are more business men than basketball minds.

    I’ll go with the latter. Drafting potential over proven talent and buzz of best fit is the name of the game for many franchises.

  • Celts Fan

    Ya, revisionist history is one thing, but this isn’t Darko (the ONLY guy that anyone was saying should even be thought of over him after Bron was Melo.). Pierce was a better prospect than Hughes and people were pointing and laughing at the Sheldon Williams guarantee. Ill never mention Darko or Kwame cuz the “experts” tended to agree they were top-tier prospects, but the shit no one liked/understood – like Yaroslav Koralev, or sheldon’s guarantee, or one of the Graham brothers over Danny Granger – is shit ill harp on forever cuz it was fuckin stupid.

  • Celts Fan

    Oh,another real fun draft promise: kedrick brown over richard jefferson

  • http://dimemag.com Austin Burton

    @Celts Fan — Exactly right. I don’t use hindsight to bash Michael Jordan for taking Kwame Brown, because if you go back and read a lot of mock drafts and draft previews from 2001, and a lot of media/experts/scouts were all on Kwame’s jock. People were saying Kwame would change the power forward position, he was the next Kevin Garnett, he had All-Star talent, etc.

  • Ender

    I can’t figure out why more teams don’t just draft for value, and ignore whoever they have on the team. If a vet can’t beat out a rookie, he is not worth keeping.

  • doc

    Talk about some bullshit.

  • Seven Duece

    At the time, Larry was on some next level ish when he was at St. Louis. His game got messed up somewhere along the way, but he was on some Penny Hardaway type stuff in college. Actually, he was fire at Golden State until they wanted to feature Antawn more plus Gil started doing it up. He wasn’t horrible until he got to Cleveland. He never should have left the Wizards, where he was on a team perfect for him. Trading money for happiness never works out, does it?

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