Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 NBA season. On Monday, there are exactly 85 days left.Even today, 24 years after the fact, the debate still rages over the 1985 NBA Draft Lottery. Was it predetermined to ensure the high-profile New York Knicks got the No. 1 pick and franchise center Patrick Ewing, the most heralded college player in several years?
Or is that just another wild-eyed conspiracy theory? People still argue it, while Commissioner David Stern grew tired of the talk long ago.
"I've heard the theories,'' said longtime NBA executive Pat Williams. "And they're just bogus.''
There is no debate that winning that first Lottery changed the course of the Knicks, the league's pet franchise that had been mired in mediocrity the previous 11 years. After Ewing's arrival and his two-year breaking-in period, the Knicks reached the playoffs for 13 consecutive seasons with him as the starting center.
The debate is whether Stern knew what he was doing when he reached into the tumbler and -- with a one-in-seven-chance -- pulled out the envelope with the Knicks logo inside.
There is one theory that he knew which envelope to pull because it was put in a freezer to make it colder to the touch. The other theory is that one envelope had a bent corner for him to feel as he reached inside.
The video lends little credibility to either theory.
While the Draft Lottery was rushed into use to end a controversy caused by the Houston Rockets, it only started another one because the system proved to be flawed.
For such a dramatic change in the way the NBA did business, there was very little debate among the owners when the league decided it needed a Draft Lottery for '85.
The Houston Rockets made the decision easy. They had gained too much from tanking games. There was too much reward for being so bad.
After watching the Rockets get the No. 1 pick in back-to-back years to take Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon -- by virtually quitting on the court -- the NBA owners knew that with Ewing waiting in the next draft, there was the potential for an outbreak of teams trying too hard not to win.
"Usually, owners want to study these kind of things. But there was no committee formed, no anything except an attitude that 'we need to fix what we had,'" said Williams. "After the Rockets went into the tank the way they did, it was automatic.''
Instead of a two-team coin flip between the worst team from the East and the worst team from the West -- a 50-50 chance at the No. 1 pick -- the NBA went to a lottery system for all the teams that didn't make the playoffs (only a one in seven chance) for the chance at No. 1.
When the worst team in the league, the Warriors, ended up with the No. 7 pick, there obviously needed more tweaking in the system. In 1987, it was changed so only the top three picks were determined by the lottery. The rest followed by reverse order of regular season record.
By 1990, it was adjusted again with a weighted system, giving the worst teams a better chance of winning one of the top three picks. Through the '90s, the lottery became in incredibly popular event for the NBA, getting tweaked even more.
As good as they've been, and the surprises they produced, only the '85 Lottery still evokes a debate.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-03-2009 @ 1:32PM
Bob Dwyer said...
I can tell you this, I was there that day in 1985 with Dave DeBusschere, then Knick GM and HE certainly didnt know anything about getting Ewing. Everyone watching TV saw him pound his fist on the table when the Knicks got the 1st lottery pick. What they didn't know was that he broke the glass on the table and cut his hand. Dave was bleeding so badly that I have to drive his car back to Garden City, Long Island where we lived.
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8-03-2009 @ 6:03PM
Grer The Sarcastic Bastard said...
The evolution of the lottery proves something that I've never understood.
It was put in place because the Rockets tanked to get Sampson & The Dream.
Then Golden State, the worst team in '85 AND '86, ended up with the 7th pick each year, so then you alter it so the team with the worst record (who you in the past accused of tanking to get there) would pick no higher than 4th.
Then after the Orlando Miracles of the 90's (landing Shaq & Webber in consecutive drafts), and everybody screaming bloody murder when The Spurs won the Tim Duncan sweepstakes, you go to the weighted system to assure that the team with the worst record (who you in the past accused of tanking to get there, and what is blatantly clear that Cleveland did to get LeBron)would have the best chance of getting the top pick.
Asleep at the wheel never sounded so prophetic.
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8-03-2009 @ 6:04PM
hokyref said...
Can't be true, as much as you want it to be, or the NBA would have done it again for NY many more times. OR--did they, only to have NY management screw it up the way only they can?
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8-03-2009 @ 7:00PM
Giles said...
I think you just answered, somewhat accurately, your own question. The nba and other pro sports leagues, worry more about gambling scandals than squad personnel rigging scandals. As long as illegal bettors know well enough in advance who is on what team, they aren`t going to bother to kill league officials for costing them money. But sure, there are plenty of billionaires who own pro sports teams and are used to having their own way, so when teams get lucky, it is often the equivalent of an owner on steroids/hgh. When the Lakers moved from Minneapolis, then the western most city in the nba, they agreed to pay part of the travel expenses for other teams. Unprecedented, but so was moving a franchise half a continent west. So it has been amazing the run of lopsided trades, which usually benfited the Lakers. Not as if the teams knew the trades were lopsided and got extra cash under the table not mentioned to the public, though, of course not. Same sort of luck when the poor little ping pong balls defy the odds and accidentally send the best pick in good years to big market teams, the best pick in bad years to small market teams. Pure coincidence. Right? But front men don`t need to be informed, don`t have to act. The billionaires don`t have to tell emplyees getting mere millions what billionaires do behind the scenes. Do they? Like Janet Jackson`s wardrobe malfunction. Maybe, with her brother on trial, she wasn`t told, but was it an accident her wardrobe malfunctioned before her biggest viewership ever? Of course it was.
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8-04-2009 @ 10:20AM
allout321 said...
96 draft was the best draft of all time period! featuring 3 MVP's, 4 definite hall of famers in (Iverson, Nash, Kobe, Allen) and 11 all stars!!! Seven players from this draft, have been named to at least one All-NBA Team, the most among any draft here are a few names Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Steve nash, Ray allen, Marcus Camby, Jermaine O'Neal, Stephon marbury, Shariff Abdul Rahiem, Antoine Walker, Peja Stojakovic, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Kerry Kittles, Derek Fisher, Ben Wallace. How was 85 draft better? 85 had 1 MVP in Karl malone, 3 hall of famers Malone, Ewing, Dumars and 11 all stars some that their names wont even be remembered. How can any draft in its entirety compare to 96? not 2003, not 84 or 85. Comments?
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