1997-05-18, By Jerry Briggs
马刺赢得邓肯乐透抽签
新泽西州锡考克斯——马刺队主席彼得·霍尔特(Peter Holt)摆好姿势拍照，脸上洋溢着喜悦。他微笑着，手里紧握着球队的海报标志，并竖起食指，示意“第一”的手势。
“这是献给我们球迷的，” 霍尔特说，“是他们一直支持着我们。”
周日，马刺队在第 13 届 NBA 选秀乐透抽签中赢得状元签，为他们痛苦煎熬的一年画上了一个令人惊喜的句号。
马刺队当即明确表示，他们将在 6 月 25 日于北卡罗来纳州夏洛特举行的选秀大会上用状元签选中维克森林大学中锋兼前锋蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)，他是公认的 NCAA 年度最佳球员。
上赛季，一系列严重的伤病使马刺队创下了 20 胜 62 负的球队历史最差战绩。而邓肯的到来可能会使他们立即重返西部冠军的争夺行列。
“这真是太棒了，” 霍尔特说，“这是我们应得的。太棒了，真的太棒了。”
如果能与邓肯成功签约，马刺队的“梦之队”锋线阵容预计将由他和中锋大卫·罗宾逊(David Robinson)以及小前锋肖恩·埃利奥特(Sean Elliott)组成，这套阵容有一天可能会成为联盟中最强大的锋线。
球队主教练兼总经理格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)打消了外界关于他可能会交易状元签的任何猜测。
一位记者找到波波维奇，暗示球队在如何使用状元签方面有“一百万种选择”。
波波维奇回答说：“不，交易蒂姆·邓肯的可能性，和（球队球探）R.C. 布福德(R.C. Buford)担任我们首发得分后卫的可能性一样大。”
波波维奇几乎没有留下任何疑问，他表示身高 6 英尺 10 英寸、体重 248 磅的邓肯是无可争议的两届全美最佳阵容一阵球员，也是唯一可选中的人选。
“你永远不想把自己逼到死角。但在这一点上，很明显，他是选秀大会上与众不同的球员，” 波波维奇说，“他和其他人之间显然存在着差距，每个人都知道这一点。”
在 NBA 娱乐公司的演播室里，波波维奇和媒体开玩笑说，他搬出了几位现役和退役的篮球巨星的名字，来证明邓肯的价值。
“我想如果你能用拉里（伯德）(Larry (Bird))、迈克尔（乔丹）(Michael (Jordan))和魔术师（约翰逊）(Magic (Johnson))打包交易，那你或许可以做成这笔交易，” 波波维奇说，“但这不会发生。”
凭借这场胜利，马刺队成为了乐透抽签历史上最幸运的球队。他们在 1987 年获得了状元签并选中了七届全明星罗宾逊。他们在 1989 年获得了探花签并选中了两届全明星埃利奥特。现在，他们又获得了自 1992 年的沙奎尔·奥尼尔(Shaquille O’Neal)以来最具统治力的状元秀。
事实上，马刺队的运气好到两次获得了邓肯的签约权。在乒乓球抽签中，他们的四个号码组合中有两个比其他任何球队都先出现。
“很明显，第二个被作废了，”一位联盟发言人说。
之后，乒乓球抽签决定费城 76 人队获得榜眼签，而此前被看好的波士顿凯尔特人队(Boston Celtics)将不得不接受探花签。
根据联盟规则，剩余的选秀顺位根据球队上赛季胜负记录的反序确定。拥有两个选秀权的凯尔特人队还获得了 6 号签。但作为联盟历史上最具传奇色彩的球队，波士顿队却失望地离开了现场。
“显然，我们想要得到状元签，因为我们意识到状元签能让我们有机会得到蒂姆·邓肯，” 凯尔特人队企业发展副总裁 M.L. 卡尔(M.L. Carr)说，“但我认为我们仍然有两个非常好的选秀权。”
此前，在 1000 个能抽中状元签的四位数号码组合中，凯尔特人队拥有 264 个。这意味着，波士顿队和他们新签下的 7000 万美元主教练里克·皮蒂诺(Rick Pitino)有 36.31% 的几率抽到状元签，这是所有球队中最高的。
相比之下，马刺队拥有 157 个号码组合，获得邓肯的几率排名第二，为 21.6%。对于这一结果，波波维奇只能耸耸肩，开玩笑地谈论球队的幸运。
“我们真的很努力，” 波波维奇面无表情地说，“我们只是坐在那里看着。”
波波维奇推测，马刺队的球员人事主管萨姆·舒勒(Sam Schuler)在乐透球队代表们观看抽签的房间里耍了些花招。
“萨姆是待在后台的那个人，” 波波维奇说，“我认为他对那些乒乓球动了手脚，才让这一切发生。萨姆·舒勒是我们爱戴的人，我们要带他出去吃饭，给他食物、啤酒、金钱，一切东西。”
选秀顺序确定后，NBA 将其搬上了舞台，并在国家电视台播出。从 13 号签开始，球队标志被从信封中取出，按降序排列。
当联盟宣布温哥华灰熊队(Vancouver Grizzlies)位列第 4 位，并在第 3 位抽出波士顿队的第二张也是最后一张卡片时，波波维奇开始感到乐观。
“当你看到那些奇怪的球队早早被选中时，你就知道你很有机会了，”他说，“你真的开始抱有希望。但你试着控制自己（不要）得意忘形，这样你就不会失望。你只是试着保持冷静。”
作为球队的新老板，霍尔特无法掩饰自己的情绪。他与其他球队代表一起坐在台上，当 76 人队被宣布为榜眼时，他挥舞着拳头，留下马刺队独自一人获得状元签。“我当时在想，‘我们做到了，’” 霍尔特说，“这就是我脑子里想的东西。当我们来到这里时，我就在想，‘我能把它带回家，带给一支永不放弃的球队和他们的球迷吗？’”
最终，马刺队管理层做到了。
这让马刺队总裁杰克·迪勒(Jack Diller)非常高兴。
“我刚飞到休斯敦，还不知道乐透抽签的结果，”迪勒说，“我给马刺队的人打了电话，但他们都出去了。最后，机场有人告诉我了。我还没有和任何人说过话，但这显然很棒。这是一个艰难的赛季，现在一些痛苦和不幸都有了意义。”
“事情本来不该是这样的，真的。一支拥有我们这样天赋的球队不应该赢得乐透抽签，也不应该再加入像邓肯这样的球员。但伤病让我们走到了这一步。”
自从去年夏天霍尔特购买了球队超过 31% 的股份以来，马刺队在他的掌控下分崩离析，上赛季因伤缺阵的比赛场次高达 347 场。
罗宾逊因脚伤和背伤缺席了 76 场比赛。埃利奥特因右膝肌腱炎缺席了 43 场比赛。球队八年来首次无缘季后赛。
现在，随着这两位前全明星球员在夏天进行康复治疗，球队的未来又燃起了新的希望。另一位球队基石邓肯即将到来。
“他是一个非常全面的球员，”舒勒说，“他可以打高位也可以打低位。他的品格很高尚。他非常符合波波维奇想要的球员类型。他是过去四年里最不可能失败的球员。”
他也是那种可以帮助马刺队争取新球馆的球员。
“我认为球队的表现定下了基调，所以像邓肯这样的球员的加入可以创造更好的氛围，” 迪勒说，“球馆的建成与否取决于它对社区是否有意义，而不仅仅是因为球队赢得了乐透抽签。但这确实加强了马刺队作为一项资产的价值。”
1997 年 6 月 25 日：圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋蒂姆·邓肯在北卡罗来纳州夏洛特体育馆举行的 NBA 选秀大会上与 NBA 总裁大卫·斯特恩握手。强制来源：Craig Jones/Allsport
前维克森林大学球员蒂姆·邓肯在 1997 年 6 月 25 日星期三于北卡罗来纳州夏洛特举行的 NBA 选秀大会上被圣安东尼奥马刺队以状元秀身份选中后，摆姿势拍照。(美联社照片/NBA 照片，Andy Hayt)
1997 年 5 月 18 日星期日，在新泽西州锡考克斯，圣安东尼奥马刺队董事长彼得·霍尔特在马刺队被选中获得即将到来的 NBA 选秀大会的状元签后做出反应。(美联社照片/Bill Kostroun)
点击查看原文：Spurs win the Duncan lottery
Spurs win the Duncan lottery
SECAUCUS, N.J. — Posing for photographs and feeling euphoric, Spurs chairman Peter Holt smiled, clutched the team’s poster logo and raised his index finger to flash the No. 1 signal.
“This is for our fans,” Holt said, “who hung with us.”
The Spurs’ year of pain and suffering came to a surprisingly happy conclusion Sunday when the team won the 13th NBA draft lottery.
The Spurs immediately made it clear they would take Wake Forest center-forward Tim Duncan, a consensus NCAA Player of the Year, with the first pick June 25 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
It’s a development that could vault the Spurs back into immediate contention for the Western Conference championship after a horrible string of injuries knocked them down to a franchise-worst record of 20-62 last season.
“This is absolutely wonderful,” Holt said. “We were due. It’s great, just great.”
On a projected “dream” front line that one day could be the best in the league, the Spurs, assuming they sign Duncan to a contract, are expected to play him alongside center David Robinson and small forward Sean Elliott.
Gregg Popovich, the team’s coach and general manager, stamped out any speculation that he might trade the rights to the pick.
One reporter approached Popovich and suggested the team had “a million options” on what it could do with the No. 1 selection.
Responded Popovich: “Well, no. The chances of trading Tim Duncan are about the same as (team scout) R.C. Buford starting for us at off guard.”
Leaving little doubt that Duncan would be a Spur, Popovich said the 6-foot-10, 248-pounder and consensus two-time, first-team All-American stood alone as the best player available.
“You never want to paint yourself into a corner. But at this point, it’s pretty obviously a no-brainer that he’s the different player in the draft,” Popovich said. “There’s obviously a drop-off between him and everyone else, and everybody knows that.”
Joking with the media in the studios of NBA Entertainment, Popovich invoked the names of some of the game’s greatest current and former players to make a point about how valuable Duncan might be.
“I guess if you put a (trade) package together of Larry (Bird), Michael (Jordan) and Magic (Johnson), then you could make a trade,” Popovich said. “But that’s not going to happen.”
With their victory, the Spurs emerged as the most dominant lottery player in the event’s history. They won a No. 1 pick in 1987 and selected Robinson, a seven-time All-Star. They received the No. 3 choice in 1989 and took Elliott, a two-time All-Star. Now they have secured the rights to the most dominant No. 1 pick since Shaquille O’Neal in 1992.
Actually, the Spurs were so lucky, they won the rights to Duncan twice. In the pingpong-ball drawing, two of their four-numeral combinations came up before any other team.
“Obviously, the second one was thrown out,” a league spokesman said.
Afterward, the pingpong-selection process determined that the Philadelphia 76ers would get the No. 2 choice and the favored Boston Celtics would have to settle for No. 3.
In accordance with league rules, the rest of the draft order was cemented based on inverse order of the teams’ win-loss record last season. The Celtics, with two choices, also came up with No. 6. But Boston, the league’s most storied franchise, left the premises in dismay.
“Obviously, we wanted to get No. 1, because we realized that No. 1 gives you a shot at Tim Duncan,” said M.L. Carr, Celtics vice president of corporate development. “But I look at it and say we still have two very good picks.”
Going in, the Celtics had 264 four-number combinations out of 1,000 that would have yielded the No. 1 choice. Translated, it gave Boston and new $70 million coach Rick Pitino a 36.31 percent chance of drawing the No. 1 pick — the best of any team.
By contrast, the Spurs had the second-best shot at Duncan with 157 combinations and a 21.6 percent chance. In reaction to the outcome, Popovich could only shrug his shoulders and joke about his team’s good fortune.
“We worked real hard,” Popovich deadpanned. “We just sat there and watched.”
Popovich speculated that Sam Schuler, the Spurs’ director of player personnel, worked some magic in the room where representatives of the lottery teams witnessed the drawing.
“Sam was the guy in the back room,” Popovich said. “I think he did something to those pingpong balls to make this happen. Sam Schuler is the guy that we love and want to take out to eat, give him food, beer, money — everything.”
When the draft order was set, the NBA took its show to the stage and put it on national television. The team logos were taken out of envelopes and placed under the numbers, starting in descending order at No. 13.
Popovich began to feel optimistic when the league announced the Vancouver Grizzlies at the No. 4 spot and drew out Boston’s second and final card at No. 3.
“You knew you had a hell of a chance when you saw those weird selections early,” he said. “You really started to get hopeful. But you try to keep yourself (from) not going over the edge so you don’t get disappointed. You just try to stay calm.”
Holt, the team’s first-year owner, couldn’t hide his emotions. Sitting on the stage with the other team representatives, he thrust a fist in the air when the 76ers were announced at No. 2, leaving the Spurs alone with the top pick. “I was thinking, ‘We did it,’” Holt said. “That’s what was going through my head. When we were coming over here, I was thinking, ‘Can I bring it home to a team and its fans who didn’t give up?’”
In the end, Spurs management brought it home.
And that made Spurs president Jack Diller a happy man.
“I just flew into Houston and didn’t know the results of the lottery,” said Diller. “I called Spurs people but they were all out. Finally, somebody at the airport told me. I still haven’t talked to anybody, but this obviously is great. It was a difficult season and now some of the pain and misery means something.
“It’s not supposed to work this way, really. A team with the talent we have is not supposed to win the lottery and add somebody like Duncan. But the injuries put us in there.”
The Spurs, under Holt’s watch since he purchased more than 31 percent of the team’s stock last summer, fell apart with 347 player-games lost to injury last season.
Robinson, recovering from foot and back injuries, missed 76 games. Elliott sat out 43 with right knee tendinitis. The team missed the playoffs for the first time in eight years.
Now, as the former All-Stars rehabilitate over the summer, there is renewed hope for the future. Another franchise player, Duncan, is on the way.
“He’s a very versatile player,” Schuler said. “He can play the high post or the low post. And his character is so high. He fits right in with the kind of player that Pop wants here. He’s as close to a can’t-miss player that’s come out in the last four years.”
He’s also the kind of player that could help the Spurs in their push for a new arena.
“I think the team’s performance sets a tone so the addition of somebody like Duncan can create a better atmosphere,” Diller said. “The arena will stand or fall on whether it makes sense to the community, not just because the team won the lottery. But it does reinforce what an asset the Spurs are.”
25 Jun 1997: Center Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs shakes hands with NBA Commissioner David Stern during the NBA Draft at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mandatory Credit: Craig Jones /Allsport
Former Wake Forest player Tim Duncan poses for a portrait after being selected by the San Antonio Spurs as the first pick overall in the 1997 N BA Draft in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday, June 25, 1997. (AP Photo/NBA Photos, Andy Hayt)
San Antonio Spurs Chairman of the Board Peter Holt reacts Sunday, May 18, 1997, in Secaucus, N.J., as the Spurs were selected to receive the first pick in the upcoming NBA draft. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)"
By Jerry Briggs, via Express-News Archives