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Dr. Laker
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Joined: 12 Apr 2002
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 Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 7:10 am Post subject: |
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| babyskyhook wrote: | | fusuyballer wrote: | Jerry Buss probably was a good businessman, no doubt, but Magic Johnson falling into the Lakers lap is kind of lucky...like the Spurs getting Tim Duncan.
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You need to read up on your Lakers history. Those two situations could not have been more opposite. |
Au contraire.
Lakers got Magic due to a coin flip (literally). Had the Bulls won the coin flip, Magic would've stayed in college. Magic was the no-brainer, hands don, consensus #1 pick that year.
The meme that Dr. Buss insisted on drafting Magic over the objection of Jerry West is apocryphal at best and PR spin at worst because:
1 - Bill Sharman (not West) was the Lakers GM and (as has been documented in writing) pretty much decided that Magic would be LA's pick after the NCAA Finals.
2 - West (scout) & Chick Hearn (Asst. GM) (as has been documented in writing) were not advocating for Moncrief over Magic, they just wanted to make sure that the team did its due diligence by working out Moncrief before making a final decision.
http://articles.latimes.com/1991-06-05/sports/sp-83_1_lakers
| Quote: | On the 13th floor of their Michigan Avenue office building, the Bulls were represented that 1979 day by Thorn and managing partner Jon Kovler, who owned the team with a mostly absentee group that included George Steinbrenner and Lamar Hunt. A poll of Chicago's fans conducted by the team resulted in a slight consensus that when the coin was flipped, the Bulls call heads.
Thorn wanted to call tails.
On the speaker phone from New York, Commissioner Lawrence O'Brien asked if either team cared to make the call. If both did, O'Brien would have to flip a coin to see who would call the coin flip.
Since Chicago's fans had been heard from, Thorn asked, could he make the call?
Chick Hearn, representing the Lakers on the phone, said that was OK with L.A.
"OK, gentlemen, here we go," boomed the deep voice of O'Brien. "The coin's in the air . . . "
How the Lakers heard first, the Bulls weren't sure, but the next sound they heard was cheering from L.A. Thorn's chest sagged and his head nearly hit the desk.
Johnny (Red) Kerr, broadcaster and former coach of the Bulls, recalled losing a coin flip with Milwaukee for the rights to draft Abdul-Jabbar (UCLA's Lew Alcindor) back when Kerr was coaching Phoenix. The Suns, too, had polled their fans.
"The moral of the story," Kerr told Thorn, "is if you listen to the fans, you end up sitting next to them."
The Bulls believe they could have persuaded Johnson to play for them. But then, they never would have had Jordan.
Nice little irony there.
"How about if I end up owning the Bulls?" Magic asked. "Now there would be the ultimate irony." |
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babyskyhook
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Location: The Garden Island
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| Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 7:12 am Post subject: |
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^^^^^
The reason the Lakers were in the running for the first pick was because they made a great trade with the worst team in basketball to get their first round pick.
The Spurs tanked.
Opposite ends of the spectrum. |
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Dr. Laker
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Joined: 12 Apr 2002
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| Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 7:33 am Post subject: |
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| babyskyhook wrote: | ^^^^^
The reason the Lakers were in the running for the first pick was because they made a great trade with the worst team in basketball to get their first round pick.
The Spurs tanked.
Opposite ends of the spectrum. |
Actually, it was pure luck, too. The Lakers got the pick because in 1976 the New Orleans Jazz were in search of another star to pair with Pete Maravich and signed Gail Goodrich as a free agent off of the Lakers. League Rules back then called for (undefined) compensation and the Commissioner ("basketball rules") decided that the compensation would be THREE first round picks & a second rounder. He was trying to discourage free agency.
As it turned out - Maravich suffered a knee injury in 78-79, missed half the season and the Jazz sank. Had Maravich (1977 MVP) stayed healthy, that team would've contended for a playoff spot.
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On Lakersground, a concern troll is someone who is a fan of another team, but pretends to be a Lakers fan with "concerns". |
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Treble Clef
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Joined: 20 Nov 2012
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| Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 1:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Dr. Laker wrote: | | babyskyhook wrote: | ^^^^^
The reason the Lakers were in the running for the first pick was because they made a great trade with the worst team in basketball to get their first round pick.
The Spurs tanked.
Opposite ends of the spectrum. |
Actually, it was pure luck, too. The Lakers got the pick because in 1976 the New Orleans Jazz were in search of another star to pair with Pete Maravich and signed Gail Goodrich as a free agent off of the Lakers. League Rules back then called for (undefined) compensation and the Commissioner ("basketball rules") decided that the compensation would be THREE first round picks & a second rounder. He was trying to discourage free agency.
As it turned out - Maravich suffered a knee injury in 78-79, missed half the season and the Jazz sank. Had Maravich (1977 MVP) stayed healthy, that team would've contended for a playoff spot. |
 that was before my time but I know Goodrich was already aging and past his prime when that signing took place. What was the opinion around the league at the time? That sounds like an awfully friendly decision by the commish. |
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babyskyhook
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Joined: 15 Jul 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 1:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Dr. Laker wrote: | | babyskyhook wrote: | ^^^^^
The reason the Lakers were in the running for the first pick was because they made a great trade with the worst team in basketball to get their first round pick.
The Spurs tanked.
Opposite ends of the spectrum. |
Actually, it was pure luck, too. The Lakers got the pick because in 1976 the New Orleans Jazz were in search of another star to pair with Pete Maravich and signed Gail Goodrich as a free agent off of the Lakers. League Rules back then called for (undefined) compensation and the Commissioner ("basketball rules") decided that the compensation would be THREE first round picks & a second rounder. He was trying to discourage free agency.
As it turned out - Maravich suffered a knee injury in 78-79, missed half the season and the Jazz sank. Had Maravich (1977 MVP) stayed healthy, that team would've contended for a playoff spot. |
My bad Dr L. You are correct. I guess I'm the one who needs to brush up on my Laker history. 
I was thinking of the trade with Ted Stepien, but that must have ended up being the Worthy pick.
Thanks for the good-natured correction.  |
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Dr. Laker
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| Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 6:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Treble Clef wrote: | | Dr. Laker wrote: | | babyskyhook wrote: | ^^^^^
The reason the Lakers were in the running for the first pick was because they made a great trade with the worst team in basketball to get their first round pick.
The Spurs tanked.
Opposite ends of the spectrum. |
Actually, it was pure luck, too. The Lakers got the pick because in 1976 the New Orleans Jazz were in search of another star to pair with Pete Maravich and signed Gail Goodrich as a free agent off of the Lakers. League Rules back then called for (undefined) compensation and the Commissioner ("basketball rules") decided that the compensation would be THREE first round picks & a second rounder. He was trying to discourage free agency.
As it turned out - Maravich suffered a knee injury in 78-79, missed half the season and the Jazz sank. Had Maravich (1977 MVP) stayed healthy, that team would've contended for a playoff spot. |
that was before my time but I know Goodrich was already aging and past his prime when that signing took place. What was the opinion around the league at the time? That sounds like an awfully friendly decision by the commish. |
I was an adolescent at the time & believe it or not, no one really understood what "free agency" was in pro sports. It was brought about by court order in the mid-70s in baseball (after years of legal wrangling) and pro-basketball had gone through its own court battles, exacerbated by the fact that the NBA had a viable competitor in the ABA until 1977.
Rick Barry, Connie Hawkins, Spencer Haywood and others lost seasons because their right to switch leagues or become free agents were locked up in court.
I wasn't aware enough of the business side of the NBA to know what the consensus was on Goodrich - in the Stone Ages before the internet, fans had no access to information on the inner workings of a team - particularly info on salaries or contract status. It was a different world.
I believe, however, that I read an article where Goodrich, himself, said he was stunned by the amount of compensation ordered by the Commissioner and that the Jazz probably would've backed off of signing him . . . except it wasn't worked out until the next season had already started.
Goodrich at the time was a 20 PPG perennial All-Star who still had cachet as a UCLA star and a major cog on the Lakers.
ALSO - not to start a political debate - but Goodrich was white and there was a premium paid for good, white players in the NBA in the 70s (and even into the 80s, as another posted referenced "The Stepien Rule" that was implemented after the Lakers traded Dan Ford to the Cavs for the pick that became James Worthy).
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