On this day in Boston Celtics history, the team would flop in that year’s draft lottery, ending up losing the top overall pick to the San Antonio Spurs despite having the highest odds — 36.3% — of landing the first overall pick of the 1997 NBA draft.
The whiff was one of the more impactful bits of bad draft luck experienced by the team in its worst era in terms of success in club history. The unlucky turn would end up sending generational big man talent Tim Duncan to the Spurs, with Boston drafting 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.
