Lets talk phenoms. On pre draft hype only....who is the all time #1 pick?

[1987_Lakers]

Fans in 02 weren’t as certain about Lebron as you suggest. I was here in 02. Plenty didn’t think he’d be that great. Kareem was seen by some as the best basketball player ever before he got to the nba. And Ewing was more widely assumed to be a sure thing than Lebron too. You go back and watch the Lebron talk there was a lot about how he couldn’t possibly match some peoples expectations.

I mean, they didn't have internet forums where they discussed prospects like Ewing back then, I'm sure there would be a few who thought Ewing wouldn't be that great if the internet was around back then.

[Kblaze8855]

Well sure because somebody somewhere thinks everything. But I knew people in person who didn’t even think LeBron should be a top pick that year. I’ve never heard Ewing wasn’t a sure thing once. Though oddly people didn’t think he would be what he was. He was supposed to come and be maybe the best guy ever shutting down the lane. Turned into a scorer who blocked shots instead of Russell with a mean streak which was the talk.

[PerkinsFor3]

I mean, they didn't have internet forums where they discussed prospects like Ewing back then, I'm sure there would be a few who thought Ewing wouldn't be that great if the internet was around back then.

What if I told you there was?

Some quotes from 1985, regarding Ewing:

The Celtics get a first round pick in '86 from Seattle for Henderson.
Seattle has a good chance of missing the playoffs, so there is a chance
of getting a very high pick. Too bad it's not for '85; oh, but for a
shot at local Pat Ewing! A sound move, I think, as long as it doesn't
have a bad effect on the "chemistry" of the team. That's hard to
predict.

I thought Dallas would pull out the Midwest division. They are a very
good team, but they desparately need a center. Remember they have
Cleveland's first-round pick next year, so they will definitly be in the
Patrick Ewing lottery. Ewing could give them quite a dynasty in Dallas. :-)
Houston has a good shot at winning it. Bill Fitch is the perfect coach
for young talent such as the Twin Towers. Denver is off to a much
better start than expected.

This year's crop of rookies is the best since at least the '79 group
including Bird and Magic. Jordan is almost a shoe-in for
rookie-of-the-year. I can see why Houston was under local pressuse to
pick Akeem, but they would be better off with Jordan in the backcourt
and Sampson at center. Akeem is a very good athlete and will get better
as he learns the game, but he's no Pat Ewing. But Portland really blew
it by passing up Jordan, not to mention trading everyone to Denver for
Kiki. Barkley is a very impressive rebounder with Philadelphia (and a
definite improvement over Ivaroni).

wing is an imposing player -- arguably the most imposing player in
college basketball. He is not, however, the keystone of Georgetown's
game and to center your game around him will get you killed from the
wings and the backcourt. Why Georgetown is a great team is (if
nobody else has noticed) that they are incredibly balanced. Ewing
is a little like a Ferris Wheel at an amusement park. He ain't
the whole thing, just the thing you see first.

As a Sonics fan I am, of course, rooting for a successful
nosedive. It is not that we need the no. 1. pick; Ewing would be
great, but Seattle doesn't need another center. Sure, you could move
Sikma to power forward and let Ewing dominate the paint, but that
isn't what Seattle needs.

How about this: Seattle gets a top number in the draft and
trades the pick to Boston for Kevin McHale. With Sikma, McHale, and
Cedric Henderson together, Seattle would once again have the
potential to go all the way. It would take a few more key players,
but at least they wouldn't be stuck in the doldrums as they have been
the past few years. Wilkens is a good coach, if he has the horses to
work with.

Why should Seattle trade the pick if they get it? So far,
all the comments have been to the effect that it would be extremely
stupid to pass on Patrick Ewing because he may become one of those
once in a lifetime players, like Kareem. Maybe he will, but it
will be at least a couple of years before he plays at that kind
of level. At the moment, Ewing is a great defensive player. In
time he may be a great offensive player. However, Seattle doesn't
need defense, it needs offense. Sure, you could draft Ewing and
start a frontline of Ewing, Sikma, and Tom Chambers. That would be
one of the best defensive frontlines in the league, but it wouldn't
score any points.

i've said it time and time again. the celtics are protected by the league
office and the referees. not that they need it, they have alot of good
players and one great player. only by playing in boston could ainge get
away with the body blocks (off the ball of course) and general ROUGH play
that he gets away with every game. and there is of course the strong arm
and long arm tactics of m.l. carr and kevin mchale, respectively.
the fast flow of the game is no excuse for the referees consistently missing
those calls. the refs look at tapes too. after you see it happening alot,
you have to start looking for those hits. you can either decide to call them
or decide to let them go.

of course, i do not complain about the possible conspiracies in the nba.
the knicks just won the right to draft patrick ewing. great for us new
york fans...just very convenient for the nba.

The Knicks get Ewing? As if that division wasn't already
too tough. They are going to love him in NY. He better
improve his free throws or he could turn NY against him
real quick. On second thought, the NY fans are pretty easy
going...With two near-legitimate centers already, the
Knickerbockers will surely sell one for a

Well Ewing is going to be a Knick!!! Think of the team
the Knicks will have. Two seasons ago when the Knicks where
healthy they took boston to a seventh game. Last season they were
injury plagued and finished terribly. My point is even without
Ewing, the knicks when healthy are a .500 team...

Now enter Ewing !!!! Think of the potential !!! A
starting front line of Ewing,Cartwright, and King!! Its as good
as any in the league. It has scoring, rebounding, defense,
everything. This combined with the always good backcourt of
Walker,Sparrow,Tucker, and Carter will prove to be a tough
opponent against the rest of the league. Finally, we cant forget
Cummings and Bannister They are solid players.

To sum up, people say that one player doesnt make a team,
and thats true, but the Knicks when healthy already had a solid
team and with Ewing WATCH OUT!!!!!!! The Knicks can match up well
against any team in the league.......

This one especially for Kblaze:

I think it's time to be a bit more realistic about Patrick Ewing and the
New York Knicks. All I've been hearing lately is that NY is going to be
awesome... even that they have a chance to become NBA Champions next year.
Give me a break. The same was said about Sampson... Houston didn't do it
in his rookie year. In fact, they were still bad enough to get Akeem "The
Dream" the next year. Both of which are so called "franchaise players."
Even with the Twin Towers they couldn't do it. Certainly they have improved,
but they weren't in the same division as Philadelphia and Boston.

Certainly Ewing will be a force in the NBA for years to come, but I think it's
going to take him a little while to adjust to the NBA and especially Hubie
Brown.

As if the balance of power wasn't already in the East,
the New York Knicks now have the rights to Patrick Ewing.
This is sure to turn the Knicks into more than a legitimate
contender for the Division title.
For the past two years, it has been said that their (the Knicks)
division has been the most powerful in the NBA. What does
Ewing's coming to New York make it now? The most powerful
in the history of the NBA ???

I can only hope and pray that New York will be so constrained
by the salary cap that they will have to dilute some of their
talent in order to sign Patrick.

Golden State has the worst record in the league and they
get seventh pick. Teriffic. I hope this is the first and
last time we see Commissioner Stern's idea of a good time.

[Kblaze8855]

Yea I was about to go search the newsgroups from the 80s myself. Always good content. I have an old topic or two about them I like to update at times.

People talking dynasty there or saying he’d take a couple years to be Kareem…..

I like Pat in retrospect more than I did when I was young but that hype is still funny. He was nice but got damn.

[Johnny32]

in my lifetime, lebron. dude was called 'the chosen one' on the cover of si as a jr in high school. i've read kareem was really hyped but before my time.

[PerkinsFor3]

I also liked this one:

A lot of players have been arrogant, but only a few have been consistently able
to live up to it (Oscar, West, Kareem, Wilt, Russell come immediately to mind).
Bird is clearly in this elite group of the very best we have ever seen. (Bill
Walton might have gotten there had his feet taken him further, and Bernard King,
Ralph Sampson and Magic Johnson still might get there).

It's much in line with what I feel about Bird. Few players in history have been able to impose their will on the game like peak Bird did. A few struggled to do it every now and then, some more than others, but I haven't seen many do it since Bird. And especially not the way he did it.

[sdot_thadon]

Was gonna say Kareem, Duncan and Lebron off the top of my head based on pre-draft hype, but man i think Sampson takes the cake. He's gotta be one of the greatest injury what-if stories because he was a unicorn before they existed. He was basically washed up by the time I was following the Rox closely as a kid but there was no shortage of hope in him down here from the fans i grew up around.

[tontoz]

Young people probabaly don't know that Bird played his senior season in college after he was drafted at 6 by the Cs.

As to the topic Kareem was before my time but his hype was up there with Lebron, if not moreso. He was an athletic freak over 7' tall with great skills.

If you want to see an example of how athletic he was you can pull up old youtube clips of him fighting Bruce Lee in a movie.

[Chick Stern]

It’s Kareem the GOAT, and it’s not particularly close.