Celtics’ Trade Becomes Their Lottery Ticket : Mavericks, 76ers Other Playoff Teams Which Will Pick Today

Two years ago, guard Gerald Henderson, a five-year veteran with the Boston Celtics, became a free agent and went shopping for a new contract from other National Basketball Assn. teams.

“He got no offers,” said Larry Fleisher, general counsel for the NBA Players Assn. “None. No team had any interest. So, on a Friday, he re-signed with Boston. On Sunday, he was traded to Seattle.”

As a result of that trade, the Celtics, who had the best record in the NBA this season and are in the semifinal round of the playoffs, own one of the choices in today’s lottery, which will decide the order for the first eight selections in the June 17 draft.

Two other playoff teams, Dallas and Philadelphia, also have picks in the lottery, courtesy of trades made six and seven years ago, one of them involving a player who has since died.

The Mavericks own Cleveland’s choice as a result of a 1980 deal in which they sent Richard Washington and Jerome Whitehead to the Cavaliers in exchange for Bill Robinzine and Cleveland’s first-round picks in 1983 and 1986. Robinzine played one year in Dallas, was traded to Utah, and died in September, 1982, an apparent suicide. Whitehead was placed on waivers 11 days after the deal was made. Washington played 87 games in two seasons in Cleveland.

The 76ers have the Los Angeles Clippers’ pick, payment for a 1979 trade for Joe (Jellybean) Bryant, who played three years with the Clippers, then in San Diego.

Marty Blake, who operates a scouting service for the league, has no great sympathy for the teams who qualified for the lottery on win-loss merit, but will miss it because of trade judgments.

“Nobody forced them to make those deals,” he said. “Let the buyer beware. I would never trade a No. 1 for a guard.”

The lottery is not exactly a guaranteed ticket to instant success for the league’s downtrodden teams. Of the seven clubs involved last year, five--Golden State, Indiana, the New York Knicks, Seattle and the Clippers--qualified again this time by once more missing the playoffs. Phoenix also is in and so is Cleveland, with a bonus pick that will be no better than No. 3. Because their previous owners traded away so many prime picks--including this year’s No. 1 to Dallas--the Cavaliers were allowed to purchase the extra choice. It will follow Dallas in the rotation, unless the Mavericks pick No. 1.

None of this sits very well with Fleisher, head of the NBA players’ union.

“We are totally against the whole draft and we are going to move against it in the next collective bargaining agreement,” he said. “The lottery is a gimmick. If there is a valid reason for the draft, the lottery makes a mockery of it when the worst team winds up with the No. 7 pick.”

That’s what happened to Golden State last year when Patrick Ewing was the No. 1 prize. Al Attles, general manager of the Warriors, was so angry when Commissioner David Stern pulled his team’s logo out of the draft drum first--giving Golden State the seventh choice--that he stalked out of the lottery. The Warriors wound up choosing Chris Mullin, who was limited to 55 games because of an early holdout and a late heel injury.

Ewing went to New York, but missed 32 games because of injuries. Indiana used the No. 2 pick to choose Wayman Tisdale. Benoit Benjamin went to the Clippers as the No. 3 selection, followed by Xavier McDaniel to Seattle, Jon Koncak to Atlanta, Joe Kleine to Sacramento and Mullin.

Only two of the lottery picks--McDaniel and Ewing--were named to the NBA’s all-rookie team. The other three members of the team were all first-rounders--Charles Oakley of Chicago, No. 9; Karl Malone of Utah, No. 13; and Joe Dumas of Detroit, No. 18. Dumas came from McNeese State, Oakley from Virginia Union, Malone from Louisiana Tech. Their successes were no surprise, though, to Blake, the talent scout.

“There are no secrets in the draft,” he said. “Here’s our pre-draft report on Dumas last year: ‘He has a chance to be a star. Has the best range of any guard in the draft. A can’t-miss player.’

“There are minor mistakes in judgment, perhaps, and differences of opinion, perhaps, but nobody is hiding out there. There won’t be any surprises.”

Blake believes teams are foolish to expect a savior from the draft. “If you are looking for immediate gratification, you won’t find it in the draft. Not in recent years. Houston got (Ralph) Sampson and (Rodney) McCray and they finished last. The Knicks got Ewing and he wound up defending the fort with a bow and arrow while the Indians were coming at him with Gatling guns.”

Blake likes the quality of this year’s collegiate crop. “It’s a draft of great athletes with unusual depth and the biggest group of true guards in years,” he said. “And it’s one of the most intriguing drafts in years.

“The key will be if one of the first eight teams takes a guard. There are five good ones--Mo Martin, Ron Harper, Johnny Dawkins, Dell Curry and Pearl Washington. Normally, you expect the first six or seven picks to be big people. But if somebody takes a guard, that will open up a few other things. That’s a big if, though.”

Washington, of Syracuse, was one of nine undergraduates who game up college eligibility to declare for the draft. The others were Walter Berry of St. John’s; Chris Washburn of North Carolina State; William Bedford of Memphis State; John Williams of Louisiana State; Michael Graham, formerly of Georgetown; Cedric Henderson, who last played at Georgia; Andre Morgan of Hawaii, and Jerald Hyatt of Lincoln Memorial, Tenn.

Brad Daugherty of North Carolina, Len Bias of Maryland, Kenny Walker of Kentucky, Chuck Person of Auburn, Mark Alarie of Duke, John Salley of Georgia Tech and the flock of guards head the senior section in an attractive, deep draft.

“There’s no such thing as a bad draft--unless you don’t have a first-round pick,” Blake said. “Then it’s bad.”