Retired NBA commissioner David Stern presided over his first league draft in 1984. It’s arguably the pro hoop league’s top selection event ever, one that yielded a quintet of Hall of Famers and the Portland Trailblazers’ d’oh moment.
NBA TV Originals’ latest entry, The84DRAFT, tips off tonight at 9 p.m. (ET), spotlighting the iconic players it produced and their lasting legacy, along with some of the unique stories associated with the other players whose names were called by Adam Silver’s predecessor.
Narrated by future Hall of Famer and LA Lakers point guard Steve Nash, the film shines the light on top pick Hakeem Olajuwon, who led the Houston to back-to-back titles in 1994 and 1995, and third selection, one Michael Jordan, arguably the game’s greatest player. In between, the Blazers selected the oft-injured Sam Bowie from the University of Kentucky.
THE84DRAFT is the latest addition to NBA TV Originals' roster of films and specials that include the Sports Emmy Award-winner The Doctor, the Emmy-nominated The Dream Team,Mr. Russell’s House, Sir Charles at 50, One-on-One with Ahmad Rashad: Michael Jordan, Searching for Redemption: The Kermit Washington Story, and Wilt 100, as well as the network’s Open Court series.
The 1984 draft also brought basketball fans the NBA’s all-time assist king in John Stockton, and Auburn’s relatively round Charles Barkley, long before he began his boisterous broadcasting career on TNT. The class included its fifth Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Schmidt, who never played in the NBA, but became a star on the international stage, competing in five Olympics for Brazil and becoming one of the top scorers in the game’s history.
The selection event also included All-Stars Alvin Robertson, Otis Thorpe and Kevin Willis, as well as No. 10 pick Leon Wood, who would go on to become a referee, and the 70th selection Rick Carlisle, who twinned his Boston Celtics title as a player with his head coaching triumph with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011.
