Going into the 1995 NBA Draft, things were shaping up to be really interesting. The Grizzlies and Raptors had the top 2 picks, with both teams were looking to move whatever players they could in order to position themselves as best as they could for the draft. The day after the expansion draft, the Grizzlies traded B.J. Armstrong to the Warriors for the #3 pick after he refused to report to the organization. With the B.J. Armstrong trade, rumours spread through NBA front offices that the Raptors were looking to move multiple players for mid-late 1st round draft picks, with the wildest ones saying that they were going to package them all to the Grizzlies in exchange for the #3 pick. Others even said the Raptors were willing to trade down with Detroit for their 2 first round picks, as well as first-rounders in future years. While no one was certain of what the Raptors' and Grizzlies' rosters would look like at the end of the night, one thing was certain: this was going to be the wildest draft in NBA history.
- From the
ESPN 30 for 30 documentary "We the North"
1995 NBA Draft
Aired June 28, 1995 on TNT.
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
ERNIE JOHNSON: I’m here with Hubie Brown. Hubie, the Grizzlies have just decided to trade B.J. Armstrong to the Warriors for the 3rd pick in the draft after Armstrong refused to report to the organization. Who should they go with?
HUBIE BROWN: Look, Ernie, the Vancouver Grizzlies are in an extremely fortunate position here, having the 1st and 3rd picks in the draft. I suggest they trade the picks in an attempt to get a superstar such as Dennis Rodman, Scottie Pippen, or Shawn Kemp. It could really help for the team to win games, which will draw fans & other good players to the team that will help their competitiveness in coming years.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Yeah, but you would be giving away young assets and empowering the NBA’s powerhouses even more and setting them up for the future. When you’re an expansion team like the Grizzlies, you don’t want to do that. You want to set up a winning team, and you can do that by setting up your future. You’re an expansion team; you’re not going to win in the first year. Let your young players develop into superstars, and just take it from there.
HUBIE BROWN: Yeah, but it would help if they had a superstar role model who could help with that.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Alright, that’s Hubie stating the importance of landing a superstar on this draft night. I’m also here with Rick Pitino. Rick, tell me, what do you do with this pick?
RICK PITINO: You draft the best player available. You draft a superstar. You have 2 chances here to select a franchise-changing player in the same year. Not many teams get that. The closest example I can think of is in 1984, when the Portland Trail Blazers offered the Houston Rockets the #2 pick in exchange for Ralph Sampson. The difference is, the Rockets didn’t bite; the Warriors did. Had the Rockets accepted the trade, we’d be seeing an Olajuwon-Jordan duo down in Houston, and the Rockets being the owners of the last 5 NBA championships. The Grizzlies have the potential to do something on that level if they draft well with both these picks.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Rick, I’m with you in saying that this could be the birth of a Grizzlies dynasty. However, there’s one problem: not many players want to play in Canada.
RICK PITINO: You’re right, and the challenge is finding extremely talented players who don’t mind going north of the border. Rasheed Wallace has clearly stated he doesn’t want to play for the Grizzlies, saying, “It’s too far for him and his mama.” However, Joe Smith, Antonio McDyess, Jerry Stackhouse, Kevin Garnett, and Ed O’Bannon clearly don’t mind the idea of playing for a Canadian team, be it in Vancouver or Toronto. If Vancouver selects 2 of them, which they most likely will, they could set themselves up to be very good for a very long time. If I were them, I would select Joe Smith, who was the National Player of the Year, at first, and Jerry Stackhouse at third. Gives them a solid inside-outside presence & foundation to build around.
ERNIE JOHNSON: How do you think the Grizzlies will fill their need at point guard, then? Do you think they reach for Stoudamire at the 3?
RICK PITINO: I think Stoudamire at the 3 is too much of a reach, even for an expansion franchise. I think they go with Smith & Stackhouse, and then sign a point guard in free agency. All indications from Portland seem to be that Terry Porter is available.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Alright, and the pick is in – the Vancouver Grizzlies making their first selection ever –
(Cut to NBA Commissioner David Stern at the podium).
DAVID STERN: With the first pick in the 1995 NBA Draft, and their first draft pick ever, the Vancouver Grizzlies select… Joe Smith from Maryland!
(Crowd roars loudly in approval. Cut to group of Grizzlies fans draping a large Canadian flag over a SkyDome balcony).
ERNIE JOHNSON: And here comes the first pick of the draft. Joe Smith, 6’9-and-a-half, 230 pounds, 19 years old, arguably the best player available, and now, the unofficial franchise face of the new Vancouver Grizzlies.
RICK PITINO: Well, you’re right, Ernie. The Grizzlies need a franchise face and all the help they can get. They’re certainly getting it in Mr. Joe Smith. He has tremendous physical gifts, in addition to an unbelievable work ethic, a very coachable player, and a ton of passion for this game. Honestly, no one is surprised by this selection. Joe Smith has stated that he won’t mind playing in Canada, so this was the obvious pick.
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Though what we did seems so obvious now, at the time, there was doubt in the room. A lot of people wanted us to pick Jerry Stackhouse, so that Dale Ellis could have someone to mentor. One guy even got the idea to trade Doug Christie to the Grizzlies for the #3 pick so that we could draft Damon Stoudamire, but we all realized the Grizzlies would never give that pick up. They desperately needed a good point guard.
So I asked Isiah, "Are you sure you wanna do this?"
Isiah told me to "trust him. I really want this high school kid. I love this kid. We need to get him."
I replied to Isiah, "Look, I understand your crush on player potential, especially with the picks you made in the expansion draft. I also understand he absolutely blew you away with his draft workout. But I don't think he's ready to lead an expansion team right now. We need both talent and leadership in our pick, and I don't think he's mature enough to get the leadership part down."
Isiah then reassured me, "We're not gonna win for a couple of years anyway. We might as well use that time to develop him. We've got veteran leadership in guys like John Salley, Dale Ellis, Jerome Kersey... guys that have been All-Stars on great teams before, so they can show him what it takes to get to superstardom."
So with that, I actually calmed down and said, "Alright Isiah. Take him," but deep down, I couldn't believe we were actually doing this! An expansion team putting its hopes and dreams, and ability to stay in a city, on a high school kid. As crazy as it sounds right now, it was way crazier back in 1995.
- Brendan Malone on
CBC Sports podcast episode,
Raptors: 20 Years of Excellence (November 3, 2015)
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I want everybody in this room to remember this: do what you want, and what you know in your gut is right, even if you're afraid. It's those people who change lives, cities, nations, and the world. Remember, I used my first pick on a high school kid in 1995. And before you get mad at me (laughs in the audience), remember how that turned out!
(Loud cheering and clapping, with some in the audience chanting, "Let's go Raptors! Let's go Raptors!")
- Isiah Thomas,
University of Toronto Commencement Speech, June 5, 2015
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1995 NBA Draft, Pick #2
ERNIE JOHNSON: Alright, and now, the Toronto Raptors on the clock with the #2 pick, you can hear the crowd growing louder. Rick, who do you pick, at #2?
RICK PITINO: Just like the Grizzlies, the Raptors need a star player anywhere. If I were them, I take Jerry Stackhouse. Can play at either the 2 or the 3, and can fill in for Dale Ellis as he gets older; Ellis is 35 going into this season, you need to start thinking about his successor.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Yeah, but what about that high school kid, Kevin Garnett?
RICK PITINO: Isiah has clearly expressed very strong interest in Garnett, and inside sources from the Raptors have told me that Garnett is his pick at #2. However, it's still a toss-up between Stackhouse and Garnett.
ERNIE JOHNSON: That is true, and we're finally going to find out who the Raptors take. The pick is in, let's go to the commissioner (A thunderous roar begins blocks his commentary. Inside the SkyDome, audible stomping of feet can be heard).
DAVID STERN: With the second pick in the 1995 NBA Draft, the Toronto Raptors select…with their first pick ever…Kevin Garnett from Faragut Academy in Chicago!
(Audible booing and chanting, “We want Ed! We want Ed!" – referring to Ed O’Bannon of UCLA, the 1995 NCAA Tournament’s Most Oustanding Player)
ERNIE JOHNSON: Oh my god! With the 2nd pick in the draft, the Raptors go with the high school kid, Kevin Garnett!
HUBIE BROWN: If you know Isiah, no surprise here, but you have to wonder, a high school kid at the 2 spot? They could have had Jerry Stackhouse!
ERNIE JOHNSON: And these fans are clearly mad about that pick. But right now, Kevin Garnett, the first high school player selected in the NBA Draft since Moses Malone in 1974, is going to Toronto. Alright, let’s take a look at this guy, 6’11”, 220 pounds, just turned 19 years old a month ago. Parade All-American First Team, Mr. Basketball Illinois, and South Carolina; he was in Mauldin, South Carolina for a time before going to Chicago. The question now, why is he going to the NBA? His test scores were not high enough, did not want to do the junior college route... he entered the NBA Draft. And his stories are becoming legend already for people who have watched him work out, from the fact that, I guess, he had a triple-double in one quarter in high school, and also in the Chicago camp, I heard he was knocking some people’s socks off.
HUBIE BROWN: Yeah, well, I think he surprised people who said, we went in to watch him work out, hoping that he was really not that good. Unfortunately, they got in there and saw the athleticism. Plus, not only the shot-blocking and rebounding, but he runs the floor like the wind for a guy his size, and also, he’s right at the top as one of the best passers that we have in this draft, to go along with everything else that he possesses. Certainly, an all-around player a team like Toronto would want.
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The selection of Kevin Garnett was a shocker, but it would be nothing compared to what Isiah Thomas would pull off next. From there, it could be said that he had the greatest day for any general manager in the history of sport. First, he traded Jerome Kersey and Terry Davis to the Sacramento Kings for the 13th pick, which became Brent Barry. He then traded John Salley and Doug Edwards to the Boston Celtics for the #14 pick, which became Bob Sura, giving the Celtics desperately-needed inside help and the Raptors a sort-of point guard that they could use for the time being. But perhaps Isiah's most unbelievable stroke of genius came at the expense of his former team: he was able to convince the Pistons' front office to give up their #18 and #19 picks for Dwayne Morton and Ed Pinckney, with the belief that those players could give the young Pistons the support they needed around Allan Houston and Grant Hill. However, the Pistons would pay dearly for their mistake, as the Raptors went on to select Theo Ratliff at #18, who went on to become a legendary shot-blocker and one of the most underrated players in NBA history, and future All-Star Michael Finley one pick later. And to top it all off, with the first pick of the 2nd round, he selected Fred Hoiberg, a 3-point specialist who turned out to be a very solid role player off the bench. With the benefit of hindsight, this draft is seen as so lopsided that many believe there was a conspiracy by NBA commissioner David Stern to make the Raptors as successful as possible, to prove his belief that basketball can succeed outside of the United States. However, multiple interviews with the general managers and coaches of the teams who made the trades have had them all acknowledge their belief that they were making the best moves for their teams at that time, and none of them saying anything along the lines of "the league was out to get them that night." This truly makes the Raptors' 1995 draft the best in NBA history.
- From the
ESPN 30 for 30 documentary: We the North
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Some people want to call it a conspiracy. Some people want to say we got "special treatment" from the league. And I keep telling them, "There was no fix that night". The thing is, all these mid-late 1st round teams truly believed they were one or two pieces away from being a championship contender back then, and we knew we had absolutely no pieces that would get us to a championship at that time. We also knew that we couldn't sign the big-name free agents or make any type of major trade involving a superstar for another 3 years thanks to the expansion agreement. So, that's why we went for the bottom half of the first round: we all knew that if this worked, nobody would have seen it coming. I think drafting Kevin Garnett over more established, prominent names such as Stackhouse, Stoudamire, and McDyess also helped.
- Brendan Malone on
CBC Sports podcast episode,
Raptors: 20 Years of Excellence (November 3, 2015)
