ISSUE TWO.
FROM ‘96 ‘TIL INFINITY
PROLOGUE
June of ‘96 was more than Michael Jordan’s triumphant return to the champagne shower, following his record-setting 72 regular season victories. It was also a platform for the NBA’s 50th recruitment drive where in the Philadelphia 76ers, holders of the No. 1 pick, attempted to correct their horrid 18-64 campaign.
Echoes from Jordan’s now perfect return served as fitting background noise to a night which ushered in both the signifier of his mortality – the Sixers’ new dynamic, lightening quick, barely six foot prize, Allen Iverson – and true heir to his vast fortune – Lower Marion Ace, Kobe Bryant. Of course it’s unfair to only credit those two when the ‘96 Draft is widely viewed as a game-changing tsunami but it’s also impossible to supplant The Answer and Black Mamba as towers along the NBA’s growing skyline. Conveyor of the stance that ‘size is highly overrated’, Iverson did more than simply cross-up his Airness during that transformative ‘97 season, he also and instantly brought about discussions of age, establishment and evolution but none of it could’ve been possible had the Sixers not dropped their confident young gunner straight into the war zone (where he was forced to learn on the job in a backcourt operation that was kamikaze). Contrastingly, Bryant’s early interactions with Jordan and the NBA brought about a much quieter discourse with far less fan applause before taking on a vastly different, almost perversive line of conversation. The early rumblings of the ‘96 Ronin however weren’t limited to the brashness of Iverson or the preciousness of Bryant. Elsewhere, because NBA law states that an expansion franchise can not land the top lottery pick during its first three seasons, the Vancouver Grizzlies, owners of a league worst 15-67 record, went from favourite for No. 2 to having to settle for bronze (as they were leap frogged by fellow Canadian bacon, the Toronto Raptors – who ended their own first term with an equally embarrassing standing of 21-61). While Iverson hogged the national spotlight, as the fish who could save Philly, the Raps nabbed NCAA player of the year, Marcus Camby – to complement Stoudamire – before the Grizz opted to secure the services of one and done phenom, Shareef Abdur-Rahim (in an attempt to make us all forget about instant flameout, Bryant ‘Big Country’ Reeves). On Draft night, the 25-57 Milwaukee Bucks were forced to select fourth after their 20% chance of landing pole position in the lottery failed. Calling out Stephon Marbury’s name, they promptly exchanged his rights with the team going
fifth, the Minnesota Timberwolves, who grabbed UConn darling, Ray Allen. Now Minny had a shiny new ball-handler to fuse with their frontcourt sensation, teenager Kevin Garnett – a promising modernism, who skipped the mandatory retail sector, advancing directly from warehouse pallet to consumer cupboard for the first time in decades. Foolishly giving up their first round picks in both ‘96 and ‘97 (to the Boston Celtics), for cumbersome centre Eric Montross (the C’s first rounder in ‘94), the Dallas Mavericks should’ve enjoyed the sixth selection but instead had to watch their pick default to BeanTown. Boston quickly acquired Antoine Walker and sent the Mavs a bottle of vintage red. From there, another six players, mostly unavailing, faulty clunkers, as it would later appear, where all drafted before the 41 and 41 Charlotte Hornets were put on the clock. When Kobe Bryant’s name was announced by Commissioner David Stern, it was a watershed moment that changed perceptions forever. All of a sudden it was skill, not size, deciding if teenagers could stand shoulder-toshoulder with grown men. In a move orchestrated by league logo Jerry West, the Lakers sent established Euro centre Vlade Divac thousands of miles across the U.S for the rights to Bryant. With Shaquille O’Neal also arriving in Hollywood that same summer, courtesy of free agency, the fate of a dozen franchises changed trajectory as the weight of power shifted from East Coast to Wild West. On the flip side to that same High School coin, the Portland Trail Blazers’ choice, Jermaine O’Neal (taken 17th) had seemingly found himself with littleto-no choice but to throw his name into the Draft hat (because his Senior grades stunk). What made Kobe’s defiance (of the standard NCAA procedure) so startling was the fact that his test scores were exceptional. Unlike the highly publicised journey of Garnett one year earlier, who opted against attending JuCo, Bryant excelled in the classroom and could’ve collected his college degree at any number of the nation’s blue-ribbon campuses and yet, given every possible option, he chose to do what no one dared, what no one thought possible – he declared, as a shooting guard, for the NBA. The notion that a loud, cocky, trigger happy, attention seeking teenager could