History of Sixers Lottery Representatives

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

The Sixers announced yesterday that Nerlens Noel would be the team’s representative at Tuesday’s NBA draft lottery. This is the second team the team has selected a current player to sit at the dais, following Jrue Holiday’s participation in 2010. Hopefully, the team has similar lottery luck as that occasion, when the team jumped from the 6th spot to the 2nd position in the draft. Of course, eventual 2nd overall pick Evan Turner didn’t pan out in Philadelphia, but you can’t blame the lottery for that outcome.

I went back and looked up who the team’s representatives were in each lottery since it began in 1985. It involved a lot of Inquirer archives and looking at YouTube videos people had uploaded from their VHS tapes. Watching that old footage, it’s crazy what an event the lottery is now, when the David Stern-led, Bob Costas-hosted affairs of the 1990s made the night to be little more than an annual accounting meeting. Anyway, here’s who the Sixers sent to represent the team and how they fared.

Year – Representative – Role with team – Order entering lottery – finish – Eventual selection

2014: Julius Erving (former Hall-of-Fame player) entered 2nd, finished 3rd, John Embiid

2013: Adam Aron and Josh Harris (team executives) entered 11th, finished 11th, Michael Carter-Williams

2010: Jrue Holiday (player) entered 6th, finished 2nd, Evan Turner

2007: Billy King (team executive), entered 12th, finished 12th, Thaddeus Young

2006: Billy King (team executive), entered 13th, finished 13th, Thabo Sefolosha (traded on draft day)

2004: Billy King (team executive), entered 9th, finished 9th, Andre Iguodala

1998: Pat Croce (team executive), entered 8th, finished 8th, Larry Hughes

1997: Pat Croce (team executive), entered 5th, finished 2nd, Keith Van Horn

1996: Pat Croce (team executive), entered 2nd, finished 1st, Allen Iverson

1995: George Lucas (coach / team executive), entered 4th, finished 3rd, Jerry Stackhouse

1994: Gene Shue (team executive), entered 6th, finished 6th, Sharone Wright

1993: Jim Lynam (team executive), entered 5th, finished 2nd, Shawn Bradley

1992: Gene Shue (team executive), entered 9th, finished 9th, Clarence Weatherspoon

*Weighted lottery system began in 1990*

1988: John Nash (team executive), entered 6th, finished 3rd, Charles Smith

*Lottery determined only top 3 picks beginning in 1987*

1986: Pat Williams (team executive), entered 6th, finished 1st, Brad Daugherty (pick traded on draft day)

*All non-lottery teams were full participants in the lottery in 1985 & 1986*

Who could forget the legendary 2-year-run from Pat Croce? The charismatic former team president saw the team jump up in consecutive years under his watchful eye, before finally seeing his luck run out in his third attempt. While the whole Keith Van Horn situation was a mess from the get-go, I think fans were pretty happy with the 1996 1st overall pick.

Dr. J was the only one who saw the team’s position fall while he was the representative, so maybe it’s for the best he’s over in China. As for this year, hopefully Nerlens continues the precedent set by Jrue for current players, and the team only has to participate in maybe one more of these events for the foreseeable future.