With The Answer's return to Philadelphia and the nostalgia flowing all throughout the Philadelphia region, we have decided to take a look back on the draft that brought a guard from Georgetown to Philadelphia.
The 1996 Draft, in my opinion, is one of the three most important drafts in modern league history, along with the 1984 and 2003 drafts, respectively. The 1984 draft brought us Hall of Famers Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley and John Stockton, as well as the G.O.A.T. Michael Jordan. The 2003 Draft brought us the future (and present) of the NBA with Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and many other contributors. The 1996 Draft remains the deepest, most talented draft in recent memory. Filled with future Hall of Famers, former MVPs, scoring champions and NBA champions.
"And with the first pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, the Philadelphia 76ers select Allen Iverson..."
It was with those words that changed basketball in Philadelphia for the next decade (and then some). For a decade, Allen electrified the league with his dramatic flair, intensity and drive. He won an MVP in 2001, the same year he carried the 76ers into the NBA Finals. In Game 1 of the Finals he provided Philadelphia fans with arguably the most exciting game in 76ers history in an overtime upset of the powerhouse Lakers in the Staples Center. Although it was the only time the 76ers won a game in that series, that season gave all 76ers fans a great ride. Many scoring titles and All-Star game appearances later, Allen was eventually traded to Denver in 2006. As great as Allen was, he is still only the second best player to come from that draft. With the 13th pick, the Charlotte Hornets drafted Kobe Bryant from Lower Merion high school out of the Philadelphia suburbs. Kobe was traded to the Lakers on draft day for Vlade Divac, and over the next 13 years we witnessed Kobe win 4 NBA Championships, a regular season and NBA Finals MVP, 2 scoring titles and 11 All-Star Game appearances.
While Kobe and Allen are the two most notable names from that draft, it is littered with potential Hall of Famers and former All-Stars. With the 15th pick the Phoenix Suns selected Steve Nash, but it wasn't until his second stint with the Suns almost 10 years later when he really broke out and won 2 MVP awards. Ray Allen was selected 5th overall and is arguably the best shooter in NBA history and won an NBA Championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008. Before Stephon Marbury was best known for his public standoff with the New York Knicks and making ridiculous YouTube videos, he was a pretty damn good ball player with career averages of 20 points and 8 dimes per game.
In that next tier of players to come from that draft were former All-Stars Jermaine O'Neal, Antoine Walker, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Marcus Camby, Peja Stojakovic and Zydrunas Ilgauskus. In what turned out to be a great night for the Lakers, they also drafted Derek Fisher with their 24th pick who turned out to be a great piece for their 4 championship teams and a great ambassador for the NBA.
The next tier of players would be filled with the likes of Malik Rose, Kerry Kittles, Erick Dampier and Tony Delk who were role players and Rose even won rings with the San Antonio Spurs.
The 1996 Draft class will forever go down as one of the deepest, most talented drafts in the history of the NBA. With many players still enjoying enormous success and with AI's career being brought full circle, only more great things can come for the guys who gathered in suits in East Rutherford, NJ on that June night in 1996.
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