May 12, 1985: The Fixed NBA Draft Lottery for Patrick Ewing

Left to right: David Stern, Patrick Ewing, Dave DeBusschere

May 12, 1985: The NBA holds its 1st-ever Draft Lottery, at the Felt Forum, a sub-arena of Madison Square Garden in New York. It was designed to stop teams having a bad season from "going into the tank" or "tanking": Losing games on purpose so that they could finish with the league's worst record, thus guaranteeing them the 1st pick in the NBA Draft.

David Stern, in his 1st full season as Commissioner, drew envelopes containing the logos of the 7 teams, out of the 23 then in the NBA, that didn't make the Playoffs. The theory was that each non-Playoff team had an equal chance to obtain the first pick. The rest of the first-round picks were determined in reverse order of their won–loss record.

It was no secret that the player most likely to be taken with the 1st overall pick would be Patrick Ewing, a center who had led Georgetown University to the previous year's National Championship, and the NCAA Tournament Final in 3 of his 4 years. Some observers were calling the lottery the Ewing Bowl, as if it were a football contest.

The general managers of the 7 teams patiently waited for Stern to draw the envelopes. The 1st one drawn, and thus the team that got the 7th pick, was the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors and the Indiana Pacers had tied for the worst record in the NBA, 22-60. Under the old system, those two teams would face a coin flip: The winner would get the 1st pick, the loser the 2nd pick. The Warriors were thus the 1st team who looked like a loser in the lottery.

The 6th pick went to the Sacramento Kings, the 5th to the Atlanta Hawks, the 4th to the Seattle SuperSonics, and the 3rd to the Los Angeles Clippers. It came down to the Pacers, represented by GM Robert Salyers; and the New York Knicks, represented by their GM, one of their all-time greatest players, Dave DeBusschere.

When Stern opened the next envelope, and pulled out the card, it contained the Pacers' logo. That meant they would pick 2nd, and the Knicks 1st. DeBusschere pumped his fist, and the New Yorkers inside the Felt Forum roared with delight. They knew exactly who DeBusschere, who had been a defensive and rebounding specialist as a player, would pick when the actual draft was held on June 18: The similarly-controlling Ewing.

When DeBusschere got up to shake hands with Stern, he reached into the pocket of his sportscoat, and pulled out a Knicks jersey with Number 33 on it. It wasn't in honor of his teammate on the 1970 NBA Champion Knicks, University of Michigan Hall-of-Famer Cazzie Russell. DeBusschere turned the jersey around, and revealed the name on the back: "EWING."

Ever since, people outside the New York Tri-State Area -- and some inside it, who had no problem with the idea -- have suggested that the fix was in: Stern wanted the best collegiate player of his generation to play for the New York team, because the New York team winning titles would be good for the league, TV-wise, therefore money-wise.

The question became not if Ewing would lead the Knicks to a World Championship, but how many. Of course, that same question would be asked for Eric Lindros and the Philadelphia Flyers in 1992. And if you had suggested at the times of their acquisitions that, in each case, the number would turn out to be zero, you would have been laughed out of the room.

But no one foresaw that the Boston Celtics would still dominate the Eastern Conference through 1987; that the Detroit Pistons would then do so through 1990; and that the Chicago Bulls, led by Michael Jordan, would then do so through 1998. With Ewing, the Knicks would reach the NBA Finals in 1994. Without him -- he was injured earlier in the Playoffs -- they reached the Finals in 1999.

It got to the point where, like Joe Namath of the 1969 New York Jets and Mark Messier of the 1994 New York Rangers, Ewing began predicting that the Knicks would win the Championship. He did become the franchise's all-time leading scorer. But the franchise still hasn't won a title since 1973, with DeBusschere, Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, Earl Monroe and Jerry Lucas, Hall-of-Famers all.

So if there was a fix, it didn't work. Even so, Jordan and the Bulls did everything for the league that Stern had hoped that Ewing and the Knicks would do.

The Pacers chose Wayman Tisdale, who turned out to be a good player, but not a great one. The Clippers chose Benoit Benjamin, also a good one. The Sonics chose Xavier McDaniel, a very good player. The Hawks chose Jon Koncak, and the Kings Joe Kleine, who both turned out to be decent players.

The 7th pick that the Warriors got stuck with? They chose Chris Mullin, who, like Ewing and Jordan, would make the Hall of Fame and play on the 1992 Olympic "Dream Team." He would later play for the Pacers, and they got more out of him than they got out of Tisdale. So while the Warriors got robbed, they got more out of their pick than anybody but the Knicks got out of theirs.

There were other interesting picks. The Dallas Mavericks got Detlef Schrempf, a German star who did well for them, and later for the Pacers; Uwe Blab, also German, but not as good as Schrempf, and neither was as good for them as later German player Dirk Nowitzki; and Bill Wennington, who did little for them, but became a reserve for the Bulls' dynasty.

The Cleveland Cavaliers drafted Charles Oakley. He didn't do much for them, but he was later traded to the Knicks, and teamed with Ewing to produce the 2nd-best team in the East in the 1990s. They also drafted John "Hot Rod" Williams, who did well for them.

The Utah Jazz drafted Karl Malone, who would pair with John Stockton to form one of the greatest NBA duos. The Pistons drafted Joe Dumars, who became the defensive leader of the "Motor City Bad Boys," and later served as the general manager who built their next great team. The Pistons have reached the NBA Finals 5 times: 3 with Dumars as a player, winning 2; and 2 with Dumars as GM, winning 1.

The Los Angeles Lakers took A.C. Green, who helped them win 3 titles and set the NBA's consecutive games played record. The Portland Trail Blazers drafted Terry Porter, who helped them reach 2 NBA Finals. The Washington Bullets drafted 7-foot-6 shot-blocking specialist Manute Bol.

So the team that did the best in this draft was Detroit -- and they weren't in the Lottery. So much for the old slogan of the New York State Lottery: "You gotta be in it to win it."

Under the current rules, only the top four picks are decided by the lottery, and are chosen from the 14 teams (out of 30) that do not make the playoffs. The team with the worst record, or the team that holds the draft rights of the team with the worst record, has the best chance to obtain a higher draft pick. After the top four positions are selected (from the lottery slotting system), the remainder of the first-round draft order is in inverse order of the win–loss record for the remaining teams, or the teams who originally held the rights if they were traded. The lottery does not determine the draft order in the subsequent rounds of the draft.

Since the 2019 draft, the NBA changed the lottery odds (the bottom three teams will all have an equal 14 percent chance of winning the top pick), and increased the number of teams selected in the lottery from three to four.

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May 12, 1985 was a Sunday. There was 1 game played in the NBA, and it was the league's best rivalry: The Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 108-93 at the Boston Garden.

These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Kansas City Royals, 6-5 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Rickey Henderson went 3-for-5 with an RBI. But Pat Sheridan hit 2 home runs. George Brett went 1-for-5. The Yankees led 4-2 in the 4th inning, and blew it, with Jim Sundberg singling home the winning run in the bottom of the 9th.

* The New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. Keith Hernandez hit a home run in support of Ron Darling. Mike Schimdt went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. David Palmer pitched 8 innings of 5-hit ball, and Jeff Reardon finished the 6-hit shutout.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-3 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Eddie Murray went 0-for-3 with a walk. Cal Ripken went 1-for-4.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Seattle Mariners, 9-5 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.

* The Houston Astros beat the Cincinnati Reds, 10-5 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Bill Doran went 3-for-6 with 2 home runs and 2 RBIs. Reds manager Pete Rose put himself into the game as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Floyd Bannister pitched a 7-hit shutout, outpitching Jack Morris.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the California Angels, 7-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Robin Yount went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Paul Molitor went 2-for-4 with a walk. Reggie Jackson went 2-for-4. Rod Carew, in his final season, only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers, 6-0 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Bert Blyleven pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-3 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-0 at Dodger Stadium, in Los Angeles. Bobby Castillo (6 2/3rds innings) and Tom Niedenfuer combined on a 5-hit shutout.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The Giants led 4-2 after 7 innings, but blew it. Nevertheless, David Green singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

There were 4 games played in the United States Football League:

* The New Jersey Generals beat the Baltimore Stars, 10-3 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The Tampa Bay Bandits beat the Jacksonville Bulls, 21-10 at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville.

* The Memphis Showboats beat the Houston Gamblers, 17-15 at the Liberty Bowl (now Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium) in Memphis.

* And the Denver Gold beat the Arizona Outlaws, 42-28 at Sun Devil Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona.

There were 2 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Quebec Nordiques beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-3 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Chicago Black Hawks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 8-6 at the Chicago Stadium. However, both of these losing teams went on to win their series. The Oilers beat the Flyers in the Stanley Cup Finals.