When We Attended The 1982 NBA Draft

For many sports fans, the 2020 NFL Draft is providing a much-needed diversion during the ongoing global pandemic. For most major sports, draft day has become a much-anticipated event made for both television and live viewing. Watching how this year’s version of the NFL Draft has had to deviate from the norm just for it to happen brings to mind how the events have evolved over time. The NBA Draft is no different—it’s now considered a holiday by the most passionate fans of the sport. The presentation has changed but my basketball buddies and I have looked forward to NBA Draft Day for years. We were not wired for cable television back then, so when we attended the 1982 NBA Draft—an all-day, 10-round, 23-team event—in person, it only cemented our status as basketball junkies.

WHY IS EVERYONE ALL DRESSED UP?

The 1982 NBA Draft was held during the week and started around mid-day or early afternoon, and for me it was perfectly timed right before the start of a new job. It was held at New York City’s Felt Forum—as it was known back then—primarily a concert venue located underneath the 20,000 seat Madison Square Garden and now called the Hulu Theatre after several renamings. We had no idea what kind of crowd to expect, but upon arriving we saw a long line beginning to wrap around the building. But something was weird. From a distance it didn’t look like a basketball crowd at all, and everyone was dressed up. We then were told the line was for hundreds, maybe thousands of couples about to be joined in holy matrimony by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon at Madison Square Garden.

Wrong line, obviously.

There was no line, however, for folks going to see the NBA Draft. We walked right in. And I don’t remember there being a charge. If there was, it was nominal.

The Felt Forum could hold up to 5,000 folks depending on the event being held, and back then the Knicks could have played there on some nights and accommodated most of the paying spectators. This was right before the Patrick Ewing years; they weren’t very good and not quite the happening on game night that they’ve become. The building wasn’t full on this day, but the event was well-attended and, as expected, the Knicks’ followers would eventually let their voices be heard.

THE START OF A LONG DAY

We’d arrived a little early, and since there wasn’t nearly the access to college basketball games on television in 1982 like we have now, the draft guides that were handed out as we entered the arena came in handy to get familiarized with some of the names we’d hear later in the day. Everyone at the event was familiar with the top players from the schools that dominated the television schedule—local players from teams in the Big East Conference and the perennial powerhouses like North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisville and others. But with the draft running for ten rounds in a 23-team league, not only would we be there for awhile, but we’d hear names and schools called that we never knew existed.

Unlike the current drafts, the building wasn’t packed with invited players expecting to be selected in the early rounds, and we probably would not have recognized them, anyway. A short video of each player selected would be shown after their name was called and a few came up on stage, but there were no fancy outfits or public family celebrations. Outside of the handful of players who showed up, the real stars of the show—at least in the building—were the fans themselves.

They didn’t disappoint.

HOW THE LAKERS ENDED UP PICKING FIRST

The first round got underway, and the only early suspense was the order in which the clear top three players in that year’s draft would be selected. There was no ping pong ball-laden draft lottery to determine draft order for non-playoff teams like we have today. Instead, there was a coin flip between the worst teams in the Eastern and Western Conference to determine the draft order for picks one and two, and everyone else selected in reverse order of regular-season finish with consideration given to traded draft picks. The Cleveland Cavaliers and the then San Diego Clippers had the worst records in their conferences. But Cleveland owner Ted Stepien, who back then was handing out first-round picks like flyers on a bustling New York City sidewalk, had traded the 1982 Cavs pick to the Lakers. The Lakers won the coin flip held the previous month against the Clippers and ended up with the first pick overall despite finishing the 1981-82 season with a 57-25 record.

As expected, James Worthy, Terry Cummings and Dominique Wilkins were the first three players selected by the Lakers, the Clippers, and the Utah Jazz, respectively and in that order. Then the suspense really began because the Knicks, fresh off a 33-49 record for the 1981-82 season, had the sixth pick the first round, and a player who likely had no idea his name would get the largest cheer of the day heard exactly that.

WEARING BLUE AND READY TO BOO

In the days leading up to the draft the local newspapers were speculating as to who the Knicks would select with the sixth pick. One of the names tossed around was that of a tall, skinny 6’11” center from the University of Wyoming named Bill Garnett. It became clear that no one in the building had any interest in having this poor guy added to the Knicks’ roster, especially with the sixth pick in the first round. And when his name was called as the choice of the Dallas Mavericks with the fourth pick, a thunderous, relief-filled celebration filled the arena that wouldn’t be matched for the rest of the afternoon.

Now it was the Knicks’ turn after center LaSalle “Tank” Thompson was selected by the Kansas City Kings. The noise cranked up in the building as the Knicks’ fans vocalized their choice. From where I sat, the clear consensus was Ohio State University forward Clark Kellogg, who could score and board. There was also some sentiment for Georgetown’s Eric “Sleepy” Floyd. I didn’t have a preference between the two, but it had to be one of them. Then, NBA Commissioner Larry O’Brien stepped up to the podium:

“With the sixth pick in the 1982 NBA Draft, the New York Knicks select…Trent Tucker, guard from…“

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Couldn’t even hear the entire announcement. Not only did University of Minnesota guard Trent Tucker get destroyed by the locals, he was actually in the building to hear it. The booing lasted well into the first round, and the looks of disenchantment could be found all over the place. They showed some video of his finer moments at the University of Minnesota and the booing got even louder. Then when the Indiana Pacers snatched up Kellogg two picks later, the booing grew louder still. When Eric Floyd was selected with the 13th pick by the Golden State Warriors, it continued with some frustrated laughter mixed in.

AND YOUR FAMILY, TOO

Later in the afternoon, the Knicks used their third-round pick—and 57th overall—on a player from the University of Illinois named Craig Tucker. There was some mild booing because no one had heard of the kid and folks were already frustrated. But even after hearing the kind of reception Trent Tucker got, the announcer somehow thought it would be a good idea to mention that this guy was Trent Tucker’s first cousin. The vicious booing started again and continued into the early evening as more names were announced.

Welcome to New York.

Trent Tucker wasn’t the greatest NBA player, a spot-up shooter with some defensive chops, but he managed to hang around the NBA for 11 seasons and won a championship with the Chicago Bulls. And he could sure take a punch.

Knicks’ fans in the building would get to unleash even more family-related snarl later in the afternoon. In the fourth round, the Detroit Pistons selected a player from Western Michigan University named Walker Russell, to little reaction from the crowd. The announcer—who evidently had a cruel sense of humor—then mentioned that Walker Russell was the brother of Campy Russell, a member of the Knicks’ 33-win team from the just-completed 1981-82 season. The fans were in no mood, and the boobirds resurfaced.

One guy sitting a few rows behind us sarcastically yells out, “Does he shoot like Campy?”

The snaps were flying all day long.

LOCAL KIDS MAKE GOOD

When the attendees weren’t hurling insults at or about the Knicks’ draft selections and management, they were waiting to hear the names of players they recognized. One of those players was Jimmy Black from the Bronx, the starting point guard on the University of North Carolina’s 1982 NCAA Championship team a few months earlier. Whenever the Knicks turn came up, the fans would start chanting Jimmy Black’s name. The Knicks had three chances to take Black after taking Trent Tucker, selecting Scott Hastings, Vince Taylor and Dan Caldwell instead before Black was snatched up in the third round. Take a wild guess who selected him.

The New Jersey Nets.

There were pockets of fans scattered around the building waiting to erupt upon hearing certain names called. Another local product, New Jersey native Dan Calandrillo, was one of those players as he was fresh off a senior year at Seton Hall where he finished third in the nation in scoring. The predictions about where he would be drafted were all over the place as there were concerns about his size. He was finally selected in the eighth round—with the 176th selection—by the Houston Rockets. By then, more than half of the session’s attendees had already left the building but his supporters hung around until his name was called. A wild celebration followed involving those who were not already hoarse from yelling out his name in futility all day.

With so many Big East fans and school alumni in the area drafted players from schools like the University of Connecticut (Corny Thompson, Mike McKay, Chuck Aleksinas), Georgetown (Eric Smith, Ed Spriggs) and Seton Hall (Howie McNeill), Villanova (Aaron Howard) and Boston College (John Bagley) received warm receptions as well.

Other locals like Brooklyn’s Eric Marbury (University of Georgia), Andre Gaddy (George Mason University) Riley Clarida (Long Island University) and Mike Edwards from the Bronx (University of New Orleans) all heard their name called before the day was over. And we finally got loud when one of our neighborhood guys, Phil Seymore (Canisius College), who somehow flew under the radar in these parts but was a strong 6’4″ guard who could score and distribute, was selected by the Knicks in the seventh round.

WHO? FROM WHERE?

A player from Alcorn State, Albert Irving, got quite the cheer when he was selected in the fifth round by the Golden State Warriors. He wasn’t a local guy, but maybe those were friends or Alcorn alums. In college, Irving played alongside former NBA rebounding champion Larry “Mr. Mean” Smith, and both contributed to Alcorn’s combined record of 56-3 for the 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons.

But local fans were in rare form that day. Many of the later selections, particularly by the Knicks, were greeted with sarcastic shouts of “who?” from different sections of the arena. And in a ten-round draft, schools who wouldn’t otherwise get mentioned in such a setting also got some pub. Players from schools like the now-defunct Upsala College (NJ), Western Oregon, Cheney State (PA), McMurry University (TX) and Wisconsin-Stout were selected on this day.

Speaking of Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, an NAIA powerhouse back in the 1970s and early 1980s had THREE players selected in the 1982 NBA Draft.

One selection drew some rather hilarious shrieks of disbelief. In the eighth round and right after Dan Calandrillo was selected, the Phoenix Suns took a guy named Rick Elrod from Georgetown. With the Patrick Ewing-led Georgetown Hoyas playing on television almost every Saturday afternoon, area basketball fans felt like they knew the entire roster, especially the draftable seniors. So while listening to a group sitting near us hilariously trying to figure out who this cat was, it was later explained that his school was Georgetown College in Kentucky.

WHEN 23 TIMES 10 EQUALS 225

Another oddity: 23 teams and 10 rounds equals 230 players selected, right? But for some reason only 225 players were selected, with rounds nine and ten having 21 and 20 selections, respectively, instead of 23. Of the 225 players drafted, 68—or 28 percent—played in at least one NBA contest. Only 21 played for 10 or more NBA seasons. No player selected in Rounds 5, 6 or 9 ever participated in an NBA regular season contest, while one eighth-round selection, Ed Nealy, hung around for 10 NBA seasons as a banger/bruiser type. These late-round finds are similar to the current undrafted free-agent discovery who sticks and contributes to a squad.

Just more evidence of the near-impossibility of making an NBA roster.

The 1982 NBA Draft is not considered one of the strongest of all time, but it did yield two Hall of Famers in James Worthy and Dominique Wilkins. College Basketball analyst Clark Kellogg might have also made the cut were it not for injuries that shortened his promising career to just five seasons. First-rounders Lafayette Lever and Ricky Pierce had long, productive careers. Fourth-round pick Mark Eaton made an impression as a rim protector and rebounder for the Utah Jazz, earning a spot on the 1989 NBA All-Star Team.

GLAD WE HUNG IN THERE

Even as a fan of one of the teams, it takes a true diehard to attend a draft in person without knowing one of the draftees personally, and sit through a ten-round draft held all in one day. We officially entered that—or perhaps another—category on this day, staying put at the Felt Forum until the very last name was called. That player was Indiana University’s Landon Turner. Turner was one of Indiana’s top players and was likely 1982 first-round pick headed for a lengthy NBA career until a car accident left him paralyzed right before his senior year. As a symbolic gesture, the Boston Celtics selected Turner with the final pick of the 10th round. Many of the remaining fans stood and applauded the selection in one of the day’s best moments.

Only someone who bought and studied one of those pre-season college basketball magazines even knew who half the players drafted were. There were no mixtapes or variety of accessible scouting reports to study and there were few games on television. Some Knicks’ fans were clamoring for a guy named Kevin Magee—one of the nation’s top scorers from the University of California-Irvine who very few had seen play—until late in the second round when Phoenix selected him. By then, the Knicks had already taken three players, each of whom got booed, sight unseen. But we sat through the entire thing until the last name was called while not seeing any game action outside of a few videos. I don’t recall how long the entire event ran, but we stepped out into the humid night air, feeling battered and bruised as if we’d played. Imagine how the draftees must have felt.

We had no idea what to expect when we attended the 1982 NBA Draft. It was was quite an experience.

Photo by Phil Hauser on Unsplash