Clippers Draft No.1 Manning, Lakers Get Rivers, Pick No. 25

Danny Manning, who carried lightly regarded Kansas to the NCAA championship, was picked No. 1 in the National Basketball Assn. draft today by the woebegone Los Angeles Clippers.

And the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers, with the 25th and final pick of the first round, took another point guard, David Rivers of Notre Dame. Rivers averaged 22.0 points and 5.6 assists per game in his senior season and finished his career as Notre Dame’s all-time leader in assists.

The Clippers, putting their future in youth, later traded NBA rebound champion Michael Cage to Seattle in a three-team deal that brought them two more first-round picks.

In the deal, the Clippers also sent Hersey Hawkins, their sixth pick in the first round, to Philadelphia in exchange for Charles Smith, the 76ers’ No. 3 pick, and Gary Grant, Seattle’s 15th selection of the first round.

Philadelphia got Hawkins and one of Seattle’s three 1989 first-round picks. The SuperSonics were left with Cage, who provides them insurance at forward, where they could lose Tom Chambers to free agency.

The Clippers, winners of just 29 games the last two seasons, earned the right to draft Manning in the NBA lottery on May 21.

The 6-foot-10 Manning finished as the Big Eight’s all-time leading scorer with 2,951 points, the sixth-highest total in NCAA history.

Despite his size, the Clippers have him ticketed as a “small” forward, alongside Smith and center Benoit Benjamin.