Today in Boston Celtics history, the team saw itself suffer a disappointing outcome in that year’s draft lottery, ultimately losing the top overall pick to the San Antonio Spurs, despite having the highest probability—36.3%—of securing the first overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft.
This misfortune represented one of the more significant instances of adverse draft luck encountered by the team during its least successful era in franchise history. As a result, this unfortunate turn of events allowed the generational talent Tim Duncan to be selected by the Spurs, while Boston chose Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer with the third and sixth picks of that draft, respectively.
“I can tell you this,” said then-general manager M.L. Carr via the Boston Globe’s Michael Holley. “Coach (Rick) Pitino will do the right thing with the picks. He knows what he’s doing, he knows college basketball.” The problem was that the Celtics played in the NBA.
Birthdays
On the same day in 1976, Ron Mercer was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in an interesting coincidence. He played for the Celtics after being picked up by them out of Kentucky with the sixth overall pick of the 1997 NBA Draft. It was there he played under Pitino, now his head coach for Boston after having left Kentucky that same summer to join the team as coach and President of Basketball Operations. Mercer played two seasons for the Celtics before being traded to the Denver Nuggets. He averaged 15.9 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game over his two seasons with Boston.
It is also the birthday of Michael Smith, born today in 1965 in Rochester, New York. He was selected by Boston out of BYU with the 13th overall pick of the 1989 NBA Draft, and played two seasons with the Celtics before being cut in 1991. He averaged 4.9 points, 1.4 boards, and 1.1 assists per game over that stretch.
Sam Vincent was also born on this day, in 1963 in Lansing, Michigan. He played his NCAA ball with Michigan State and was selected by the Celtics 20th overall in the 1985 NBA Draft. Vincent played two seasons with Boston as a reserve guard, winning a championship in that role in 1986. He was dealt to the Seattle SuperSonics and logged 3.4 points, 0.7 boards, and 1.2 assists per game in his time with the Celtics.
This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Celtics history: Cs whiff ’97 lottery, miss Duncan; Mercer, Vincent born
