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I was bored, and I started to revisit past NBA drafts, and I came across the 1996 draft. It just got me thinking a little bit. I was looking at all these names and a lot of these players played short careers, and it goes to show you how difficult it can be to have a lengthy NBA career. Currently 12 players out of the 58 from the draft, still have an NBA job still.(Not 1 person from the 2nd round)

Ive been a fan of the NBA for awhile, and some of these names Ive never heard of..just found it interesting and it just goes to show you how special Kobe Bryant is...


1 Allen Iverson
2 Marcus Camby
3 Shareef Abdur-Rahim
4 Stephon Marbury
5 Ray Allen
6 Antoine Walker
7 Lorenzen Wright
8 Kerry Kittles
9 Samaki Walker
10 Erick Dampier
11 Todd Fuller
12 Vitaly Potapenko
13 Kobe Bryant
14 Peja Stojaković
15 Steve Nash
16 Tony Delk
17 Jermaine O'Neal
18 John Wallace
19 Walter McCarty
20 Žydrūnas Ilgauskas
21 Dontae Jones
22 Roy Rogers
23 Efthimis Rentzias
24 Derek Fisher
25 Martin Müürsepp
26 Jerome Williams
27 Brian Evans
28 Priest Lauderdale
29 Travis Knight

Hahah.... where are you Travis Knight? and the Vin Baker award goes to...

Anyhow yeah it's funny how we're at an age where Kobe is right there in the meat, and because he was a highschool draftee, many of his peers are considered aging or old.

I'm actually surprised how many of those guys did well and weren't big busts.

Whoever drafted Todd Fuller,,, yeeeeeesh, bro.

This is what's best about being a Laker fan. The organization wants to win. You can look at the past drafts and trades and be pretty satisfied. When I am really bored, I'll visit some memories of the 96 draft, Gasol trade, 3-peat, so on.. it's just great to be a Laker fan with the memories, history, and winning.

Kobe's agent scared off teams saying there were particular places Kobe would go. Some teams, wary of drafting a high schooler anyway, weren't about to draft one under that threat - except of course Logo

Its pretty funny how one of the greatest players of all time wasn't even drafted in the top 10.

nastneemz81 wrote:Its pretty funny how one of the greatest players of all time wasn't even drafted in the top 10.

Jordan Farmar?

17 24 16 wrote:

nastneemz81 wrote:Its pretty funny how one of the greatest players of all time wasn't even drafted in the top 10.

Jordan Farmar?

I licked a lolsickle on that post

Seriously some of those GMs and scouts should be fired for picks like Potapenko, Todd Fuller & Erick Dampier over Nash, Kobe, Stojakovic, Z & JO.

Charlotte should've never agreed to trade Kobe for Vlade Divac, and had they known Bobby Phills was going to die in a drag racing accident, probably would've kept Kobe..

j-far wrote:Seriously some of those GMs and scouts should be fired for picks like Potapenko, Todd Fuller & Erick Dampier over Nash, Kobe, Stojakovic, Z & JO.

Well in all fairness..every draft has every failures.

It's not like them scouts can see the future...

Interesting list, I think Kobe is the only player listed that ONLY played for one Team, most all the rest were traded at least once...

nice find!

kobe wasn't the best in that draft back then he had the most potential hes the best now because of his work ethic thats why hes my favorite player and thats why hes the best in the league

Booz wrote:

j-far wrote:Seriously some of those GMs and scouts should be fired for picks like Potapenko, Todd Fuller & Erick Dampier over Nash, Kobe, Stojakovic, Z & JO.

Well in all fairness..every draft has every failures.

It's not like them scouts can see the future...

You know Todd Fuller is the only dude with a GPA > NBA PPG right? That kind of failure is intolerable imo.

can the 96 draft win a championship? in what year? who are your starters and bench?

Nash at the 1 bench Iverson
Kobe at the 2 bench Marbury
R Allen at the 3 bench Peja
JO at the 4 bench M Camby
Z at the 5 bench Dampier

reserves
twan
l wright
fisher
kittles
Raheem

I say they can beat the the Heat of 06.

snaquille oatmeal wrote:can the 96 draft win a championship? in what year? who are your starters and bench?

Nash at the 1 bench Iverson
Kobe at the 2 bench Marbury
R Allen at the 3 bench Peja
JO at the 4 bench M Camby
Z at the 5 bench Dampier

reserves
twan
l wright
fisher
kittles
Raheem

I say they can beat the the Heat of 06.

If all are in their primes they could beat anybody in the past 10 years except for maybe the early 00's Lakers.

If you can only take them all at the same point in their careers (for example all in 06, or 02, etc), then it gets tougher, especially since Nash's peak was way different than a lot of these guys.

I think 05 or 06 would be the year you'd want. Kobe was still right in the middle of his prime, Nash had finally become one of the best in the NBA, Ray Allen and Iverson were still All-Star caliber, big Z was solid, and 05 was probably JO's last decent season.

Tim_Hardawayy wrote:

snaquille oatmeal wrote:can the 96 draft win a championship? in what year? who are your starters and bench?

Nash at the 1 bench Iverson
Kobe at the 2 bench Marbury
R Allen at the 3 bench Peja
JO at the 4 bench M Camby
Z at the 5 bench Dampier

reserves
twan
l wright
fisher
kittles
Raheem

I say they can beat the the Heat of 06.

If all are in their primes they could beat anybody in the past 10 years except for maybe the early 00's Lakers.

If you can only take them all at the same point in their careers (for example all in 06, or 02, etc), then it gets tougher, especially since Nash's peak was way different than a lot of these guys.
I think 05 or 06 would be the year you'd want. Kobe was still right in the middle of his prime, Nash had finally become one of the best in the NBA, Ray Allen and Iverson were still All-Star caliber, big Z was solid, and 05 was probably JO's last decent season.

yeah that's what I was going for. also don't forget that Peja was tearing it up from the 3 at around that time too.

one of the best drafts in nba history, great players in it.

ShowtimeFan wrote:Interesting list, I think Kobe is the only player listed that ONLY played for one Team, most all the rest were traded at least once...

nice find!

Illgauskas

Alymero wrote:Charlotte should've never agreed to trade Kobe for Vlade Divac, and had they known Bobby Phills was going to die in a drag racing accident, probably would've kept Kobe..

seriously, dang them for not knowing the future

How Kobe ended up on the Lakers is (Please Use More Appropriate Word) anyways. You guys wouldn't be singing the same tune if you were still in Minny. I hate when players do this.