The three newest expansion teams of the National Basketball Association had struggled through their first season, as expected. Now came their reward: the first three picks in the 1971 NBA Draft.
Cleveland had the first choice overall, and opted for Austin Carr of Notre Dame. Carr was the leading scorer in the history of the NCAA tournament at that point. Portland went second and took Sidney Wicks of UCLA, who had won three national championships while playing for legendary coach John Wooden.
That left Buffalo third, and the Braves' pick sent people scurrying to find an atlas.
Kentucky State? Where is Kentucky State?
Kentucky State was located in Frankfort, the capital of the state. What's more, it had a basketball team with not one but two future first-round draft choices on it. The Braves had taken one of them, center Elmore Smith. Travis Grant was a year away.
Smith came with some question marks, some about the level of competition, but there was no doubting his physical talents. Smith was 7-feet and averaged 25 points and 24 rebounds per game in college. He also had established a reputation as a dominating shot blocker. Smith figured to be a nice fit for the Braves, who could slide the undersized Bob Kauffman over to power forward.
The Braves were able to sign Smith to a five-year contract, no small accomplishment in the days of the war with the ABA. Carolina had drafted Smith in the first round as well, but the Cougars later signed Jim McDaniels of Western Kentucky (even though McDaniels was Utah's top pick) and didn't offer much competition for Smith.
Some of the nation's best players had come out of the draft pool early because of signing. Artis Gilmore might have been the first pick in the draft by Cleveland, had he not already signed with the ABA's Kentucky Colonels. In fact, Howard Potter, who led Villanova to the Final Four, had signed with an agent during the season. Villanova was removed from the official records of that year's tournament; the second-place team is officially listed as vacated.
The Braves had accumlated three second-round picks through trades. They first went for a guard in Fred Hilton of Grambling. Hilton had an interesting story. He was a top high school guard with a reputation as a shooter in New Orleans. He wanted to go to LSU. However, Pete Maravich was already there, and there was only one basketball. So much for that idea. So off to Grambling. Next up was Amos Thomas of Southwest Oklahoma State. He was followed by Spencer Haywood, who had left college early and had spent one season in the ABA and one season in the NBA with Seattle. The Braves were prepared to argue that since 1971 was when Haywood's original college class was graduating, he should be eligible for the draft. It was a tactic that had little chance of succeeding, but it was an interesting approach.
Buffalo didn't take anyone of note in rounds three through six, but in round seven it took a chance on a local player. Randy Smith had been a sensational all-around athlete at Buffalo State, starring on the track, soccer and basketball team. A tremendous leaper, Smith scored many of his soccer goals simply by jumping above everyone else and heading the ball into an open spot of the net. Still, no one thought the selection was anything but a way to make a local kid feel good. "Randy can't make it in the Little Three, let alone the NBA," a Braves talent scout reportedly said.
"They didn't have any intensions of keeping me," Smith said later. "But I knew I was a good athlete, and I knew I was going to work hard and if I got an opportunity I was going to take advantage of it."
On the first day of training camp, according to a later Sports Illustrated account, coach Dolph Schayes sent his team through a drill. Smith was easily the fastest man through it. Twice. "He's fast," Schayes is quoted as saying. "He's staying."
By the way, the draft that year went 18 numbing rounds. The Braves quit after round 17, and their last pick was Joey Meyer, the son of legendary DePaul coach Ray Meyer.
