Andrew Wiggins has a great chance of being selected No. 1 overall on Thursday night during the NBA Draft in Brooklyn. If so, he’ll become just the second Jayhawk ever picked No. 1 when Danny Manning held that honor in 1988 with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Also, if Joel Embiid gets picked in the top-10, it will mark just the second time in KU history that two former Jayhawks were selected within the top-10 picks in the same draft. That happened in 1998 in Vancouver when Raef LaFrentz went No. 3 to the Denver Nuggets, while Paul Pierce slipped to No. 10 to the Boston Celtics.
(If Embiid does slip past the top five, this reporter expects Boston to gobble him up at No. 6 assuming the Celtics indeed keep the pick).
Phog.net takes a historical look at the 1998 Draft and how the careers of Pierce and LaFrentz turned out.
PAUL PIERCE
Pierce waited anxiously on a rainy night in Vancouver on June 24, 1998 in the Green Room at General Motors Place as pick after pick was announced by NBA Commissioner David Stern. Pierce, who was thought by some observers to go in the top three, eventually was selected by the Boston Celtics at No. 10.
“I am a little disappointed, but it is a situation I had no control over,” Pierce told the media that night. “I guess teams figured they couldn’t use me, or that someone else fit their needs better. We (agent) never had a chance to talk with, or mentioned the Celtics. It’s a big surprise to me to be wearing this hat. If you would have told me a week ago, I would have not believed a word of it, but I am here, this is my situation and I will make the most of it.
“I am going to use this as motivation and show these teams that they passed on a quality player. I just want to go out there next year to let them know that they should have picked me, but I am happy that Pitino (Rick, Celtics coach) felt confident in my ability and gave me a chance.”
Then-Celtics general manager Chris Wallace told ESPN The Magazine in 2002 how Boston got its man.
“There was a chain of events, and if any one of them doesn’t occur, we’re screwed,” Wallace said. “First, Kansas lost to URI in the second round of the NCAAs when Paul didn’t play very well. Then he had so-so workouts. And then the new guys in town showed up — Jason Williams, Robert Traylor and Dirk Nowitzki — and pole-vaulted in the top 10. We had Paul in the top four. The great thing was we had no time to outsmart ourselves. When it was our turn, there wasn’t a decision to make.”
Wallace, who is now the GM of the Memphis Grizzlies and actually a former student at KU in the late 1970s, also spoke to this reporter in 2009 about that draft night. While Wallace thought Pierce could drop, he was still surprised he was there at No. 10.
“It was like we had this lottery ticket lying on the floor," Wallace said. "It was really astounding as the picks started getting closer to 10. I remember telling Rick Pitino after seven that we might get Paul Pierce. ... Then it just started hitting us (after Milwaukee picked Nowitzki at No. 9), we’re going to get Paul Pierce. Like how was I lucky to pull that off? You don’t ask questions, you take him.”
This set the course for a magical career Pierce had in Beantown for 15 years before being traded to the Brooklyn Nets last season while firmly establishing himself as a future Hall of Famer. He holds numerous Celtics’ records and ranks as the No. 18 scorer in NBA history with 25,031 points.
Pierce led Boston to the 2008 title, where he was named Finals MVP. He is a 10-time NBA All-Star, a member of the All-NBA Second Team in 2009 and a three-time All-NBA Third Team selection (2002, 2003 and 2008). Pierce was also named to the NBAAll-Rookie First Team in 1999 and was the league’s three-point contest winner at the 2010 All-Star game.
He was the NBA regular-season leader in total points in 2002 (2,144) and the regular-season leader in free throws made in 2003 (604).
Pierce continued to amaze at age 35 during his last season in Boston. He became the oldest player in Celtics history to score 40 points in a regulation game when he did so against Cleveland on Dec. 19, 2012 at TD Garden in Boston’s victory. He scored 25 points in the second half and made all seven of his field goals in the final quarter. Pierce shot 13 of 16 from the field, 6 of 8 from beyond the arc, and 10 of 11 at the free throw line.
''When I first came into the league I always asked myself, 'Do I want to be good or do I want to be great?'” Pierce told the Associated Press afterwards. ''Every time I stepped out and worked on my game, that's what I asked myself. I always got here early and worked on my craft as hard as I could because I wanted to be one of the great players.”
While he can still be a force, Pierce had his worst statistical season last year in Brooklyn, averaging 13.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 75 games (68 starts). He has career averages of 21.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.8 assists, while shooting 44.7 percent from the field, 37.0 percent from three-point range, and 82.7 percent at the charity stripe in 36.1 minutes per game.
A consensus first-team All-American at KU after his junior year in 1997-98, Pierce was also the Big Eight Freshman of the Year in 1995-96. The No. 7 all-time leading scorer in Kansas history, Pierce is one of just seven Jayhawks to score more than 700 points in a season.
RAEF LAFRENTZ
As LaFrentz was putting up All-American numbers during his senior season at Kansas, the Denver Post wrote that he could be the No. 1 overall pick months before the June draft.
Celtics’ GM Wallace was also impressed with the 6-11 mobile big man as the draft neared.
“He will be the first or second senior selected in the draft, and he’s the No. 1 power forward prospect,” Wallace said in the 1998 NBA Draft media guide.
“He can run the court, he can score and he rebounds and blocks shots. He has to get stronger to meet the rigors of the NBA game. While I think he will do quite well in the NBA, I don’t think you’ll see his best basketball at center."
After Pacific’s Michael Olowokandi (big bust) went No. 1 to the Clippers and Arizona point guard Mike Bibby was selected No. 2 by Vancouver, LaFrentz was drafted with great promise as the No. 3 pick by the Denver Nuggets, seven picks ahead of former KU teammate Pierce.
After tearing his ACL 12 games into his rookie season, many observers believed he was still destined for greatness.
“Raef is going to be an All-Star soon,” Nuggets strength and conditioning coach Steve Hess told the Denver Post in August 1999. “He’s never going to have another problem. That’s my belief. Raef is a potential superstar. So he can’t come back and be OK. He has to come back and be unbelievable. There’s a lot of pressure on him. It’s not like any guy coming back from a surgery and if he does good, you’re like, ‘Wow.’
“Raef has to come back and blow everyone’s socks off, so can you imagine going to bed every night and thinking about that? Not only do you have to come back from this rehab, but you have to be unbelievable — and he will be.”
LaFrentz never became a superstar, but did make his mark with Denver with his multidimensional skills as a big man who could shoot three-pointers and block shots with the best in the NBA.
He averaged at least 12.4 points his first three full years in the league, while blocking at least 180 shots per season during that span. In his third full season in 2001-02 playing for both Denver and the Dallas Mavericks, LaFrentz became just the third player in NBA history to record 100 three-pointers (104) and 100 blocks (213) in the same season.
However, the former KU All-American’s production declined after that with injuries. LaFrentz, though, showed signs of his old form with the Boston Celtics for two years from 2004-06, where he averaged 11.1 points and 6.9 rebounds in 2004-05 before playing in all 82 games the following season for the first time in his career and making a career-best 112 threes.
He finished his career with two injury shortened seasons in Portland, retiring at age 31 in 2007-08.
LaFrentz, who played 10 years in the NBA, posted career averages of 10.1 points (5,690), 6.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game.
A two-time consensus All-American and Big 12 Player of the Year, LaFrentz is the third all-time leading scorer and second-leading rebounder in KU history.
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