rockets of 83

Would that be 82-83? That would be the year of the tank in order to draft Sampson

 

That's what I was thinking. A beautiful tank job!

 

I remember they used to run a "Sampson's Sweepstakes" in the sports section everyday in which they reverse each teams record.

That year the Rox won with a record 68-14 (reversed).

 

If so (as I recall) that tank job was the one that brought along the current lottery system.

 

I think the lottery came the year after when we again won the coin flip & drafted Olajuwon.

 

lottery was one of the better nba ideas. no doubt. Good entertainment and prevents losing on purpose. Although the Cavs were pretty good at it in the Lebron sweeps. They pretty much banked everything on that number one pick.

How come there was no Yao sweepstakes?

 

The lottery didn't just spring up, fully formed after we got Sampson - we still did a coin flip for the Olajuwon pick, if I recall - even though we didn't have the worst record or second worst, or even third worst.

We just had the worst in our conference - two teams with worse records than us didn't get a shot at Olajuwon, b/c they didn't do as badly as another team in their conference.

Then they decided to give all non-playoff teams a chance - but they gave each of them an equal chance, and that didn't make sense - so after Ewing went to the Knicks - weight was given based on how crappy a team did. Then after the Webber pick went to the Magic, they weighted it even more for the crappy teams.

 

Thanks, you freak'n nit-pickers I remember the Olojuwon coin flip (shheees, that Charlie Thomas smiling next to Olojuwon was creepy) and could not believe their good luck.