A recap, courtesy of Microsoft Complete Basketball 1995:
The 1989 NBA Draft was strange and confusing. Not only was there no single great prospect to select, there wasn’t even a clear top 5 or top 10. “I wish some big hand would come out of the sky and tell us what we should do,” said Charlotte Hornets owner George Shinn, whose team had the fifth pick. Barry Hecker, head scout for the Los Angeles Clippers, who were picking second, said, “It’s a lot more fun this way. Movies are better when you don’t know the ending.”
Sacramento General Manager Jerry Reynolds figured that by not announcing whom the Kings would pick at No. 1, all potential traders would have to go through him, fearing that he might take the player they wanted. After the draft Reynolds lamented the lack of phone calls.
The principle players in the 1989 draft included Danny Ferry of Duke, Pervis Ellison of Louisville, Sean Elliott of Arizona, and Glen Rice of Michigan. If anyone had a sense of what was going on, it would have to be Ferry, whose father was general manager of the Washington Bullets. “The one thing my father keeps telling me is that this is a screwy draft,” the younger Ferry said.
Eventually, draft day came and went. The Kings took the 6-foot-10 Ellison at No. 1, the Clippers went with Ferry at No. 2, and the San Antonio Spurs selected Elliott at No. 3. The Miami Heat then took Rice in the fourth slot. The Hornets, participating in their first draft lottery, took North Carolina forward-center J. R. Reid at No. 5, the Chicago Bulls took Oklahoma’s Stacey King at No. 6, and the Indiana Pacers drafted George McCloud of Florida State at No. 7. The Dallas Mavericks went with Louisiana Tech’s Randy White with the eighth pick, and the Washington Bullets selected Georgia Tech’s Tom Hammonds at No. 9.
The two newest expansion teams, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Orlando Magic, were slotted after the lottery and before the playoff teams, just as Miami and Charlotte had been the year before. UCLA’s Pooh Richardson became the Timberwolves’ first-ever choice at No. 10, and Illinois’s Nick Anderson was the first player ever drafted by the Magic.
There were a couple of certified steals in the draft. The Golden State Warriors found a floor leader with the 14th pick in Tim Hardaway of Texas–El Paso, and the Seattle SuperSonics came up with a gem-in-the-rough when they took 19-year-old Shawn Kemp with the 17th choice. The 6-foot-10 Kemp had never played college ball, having sat out what would have been his freshman year at Kentucky as a Proposition 48 student before enrolling (but not playing) at Trinity Valley (Texas) Community College.
Kemp thus became the third player in NBA history to be drafted without having played in college. The others were Darryl Dawkins and Bill Willoughby, both picked in 1975. (Moses Malone was selected by the American Basketball Association’s Utah Stars in 1974, then taken by the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers in the 1976 dispersal draft). Picking 26th in the first round, the Los Angeles Lakers took another player who had never played college ball when they selected 7-foot-1 center Vlade Divac from the former Yugoslavia.
In accordance with the 1988 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NBA and the Players Association, the draft was reduced from three rounds in 1988 to two in 1989.
(c)1994 NBA Properties, Inc. and/or Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
I thought it might be fun to reconstruct such a "strange and confusing" Draft. So here goes. This is based on current attitudes towards draft prospects and what we know about each player's career. As it was a fairly weak draft, I'm only doing the top 11 picks.
1. Sacramento - Shawn Kemp
If the year 1989 was indeed like the year 2003, take all the hype surrounding LeBron last year and substitute the words "Lebron James" for "Shawn Kemp". If GMs were as crazy as high school players and "upside" back then as they are now, there's no way they'd overlook a 6'10", 240 power forward with explosive leaping ability, a decent outside jumper, and ballhandling skills that were (to be honest) still a little shaky, but better than most power forwards. Even though the lockout sent his career down the tubes, he's a better number one pick than Pervis Ellison any day.
2. Los Angeles Clippers - Tim Hardaway
There's no way Tim Bug could fall to number 14 if anyone could see what kind of player he would become. Also, taking a 6'0" player in the top three wouldn't sound like such strange move these days. The Clippers could have used a talented point guard, too.
3. San Antonio - Sean Elliott
Elliott proved to be a great complement to David Robinson and later a role player on a Spurs' championship teams. I think that San Antonio would still take him with the third pick given the chance to do the 1989 Draft all over again.
4. Miami - Glen Rice
I also think the Heat wouldn't change their selection if Rice was still available at the fourth pick. Although he didn't make the All-Star team until he was with the Hornets, he had some fine years in Miami and would be the best choice of the remaining players.
5. Charlotte - Vlade Divac
The young Hornets needed a big men. They went with J.R. Reid, but Vlade Divac would have been a much better choice. With more and more GMs looking overseas these days, it's difficult to imagine Vlade dropping to the 26th pick if the draft was held again today.
6. Chicago - B.J. Armstrong
I'm tempted to say that Krause would have picked Stacey King anyway, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and predict that the Bulls would have taken Armstrong 12 picks higher had everyone known he was capable of being a solid role player on three championship teams.
7. Indiana - Mookie Blaylock
I know I'm placing a lot of small guards fairly high, but none of the big men in this draft had particularly good careers. Blaylock would have been a good backup to Vern Fleming while he developed, or possibly even his immediate replacement in the starting five.
8. Dallas - George McCloud
He actually ended up playing a few years in Dallas anyway, but McCloud would have been a nice pick for the Mavericks had he been available at eight. He would have given them a player capable of scoring in double digits off the bench, or starting in the place of Adrian Dantley who only played 45 games in the 89/90 season.
9. Washington - Pervis Ellison
I'm still picking Ellison to go in the top ten. He had a few decent years before injuries bumped him to the 11th or 12th spot on the roster, and the Bullets could have used a promising young centre.
10. Minnesota - Dana Barros
The Timberwolves had a little trouble putting points on the board in their first season. It might have been a little easier had they selected Dana Barros, who led the Big East in scoring in his junior and senior seasons at Boston College. He would have been a much better choice than Jerome "Pooh" Richardson.
11. Orlando - Nick Anderson
If Nick was still available at the 11th pick, I think the Magic would still take the player who became the first draft selection in team history, and became one of its most important players during the 90s - even if he did miss some key free throws during the 1995 NBA Finals.
Anyone else want to try redrafting the class of 1989?
