Adam’s Family Is Hawkish

Deep down, Miles Keefe was hoping for Sacramento. A father always wants to stay close to his son and Irvine to Arco Arena is just a 45-minute flight up the coast.

For the record, Adam Keefe said he didn’t care. His demands of the NBA are few--just a jersey, an address and a few missed jump shots skidding off the glass within the general vicinity.

So it was up to Mom to put the proper spin on Adam’s selection by the Atlanta Hawks as the 10th pick in the 1992 NBA draft.

“It’s just great,” Suzanne Keefe enthused. “He graduates from college and he has a job.”

All around the Keefes, 140 or so of Adam’s closest friends raised mugs and slices of pepperoni to toast the advanced intelligence of the Hawks’ management. This was Adam’s party--he’d rented the pizza parlor, he was picking up the tab--and if he was going to shell out the big bucks for a Draft Day gala, the least the NBA could do was make it a happy occasion.

That it was, although, for a while, it was nervous time.

Before Wednesday, the mock-draft consensus had Keefe, Stanford’s All-American forward by way of Woodbridge High School, going somewhere in the top 10--possibly as high as fifth, to Denver, and most likely seventh, to Sacramento, which had been able to inspect Keefe’s progress, up close, for the last four years.

Keefe was loose and laughing through the first four picks, bouncing from corner to corner and guest to guest while the names Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Christian Laettner and Jimmy Jackson were predictably ticked off.

At 5:05 p.m. it was Denver’s turn and Keefe’s throat was getting dry. Returning from the front counter with a soft drink in his hand, Keefe leaned over to a friend and whispered, “What if I don’t go? All this for nothing.”

Keefe sat in front of the big screen, sipped and waited.

And Denver chooses . . . Notre Dame forward LaPhonso Ellis. Keefe nodded and kept staring straight ahead.

Washington was next up and the Bullets weren’t going to surprise anyone. North Carolina State forward Tom Gugliotta was their man weeks ago. East Coast guy, can knock ‘em down outside the Beltway.

At No. 7, Sacramento. “Shhhh,” someone commanded. “Oh dear,” said another.

The room fell quiet. Too quiet. TNT analyst Hubie Brown said it would be either Keefe or Maryland guard Walt Williams.

It was Williams, followed by a roomful of moans.

“Milwaukee’s next,” an upbeat voice announced. “That’s a good place. They’ve got a good team.”

Minutes later, they also had Todd Day, the 6-8 guard from Arkansas.

Philadelphia followed by selecting Clarence Weatherspoon, the Southern Mississippi forward, and the mood turned decidedly downcast. “So Keefe slides a little further,” Doug Collins somberly intoned.

Down to Atlanta. Collins and Brown declared this one a jump ball. “Harold Miner?” Brown wondered. “How about (Bryant) Stith from Virginia?” Collins noted that the Hawks “don’t have a lot of size up front. Tough call.”

Camera lenses and camcorders rose into place for the sixth time and this time, there was some action. NBA commissioner David Stern didn’t have the words out of his mouth when the room erupted into cheers and Suzanne Keefe began hugging and kissing her son.

Miles shook Adam’s hand and tried to look on the bright side.

“The Hawks are on TBS,” he said. “We’re going to see a lot of his games. What more could you ask for?”

Adam couldn’t think of much.

“I’m just excited to be able to go out into the NBA,” he said. “I wasn’t set on one city, one position in the draft . . .

“They’ve got a great organization down there. Atlanta was definitely a playoff team last year if not for one big injury (Dominique Wilkins). They worked me out down there and I loved the place. It’s a great city. Beautiful, clean, up and coming. And they’re really building on the momentum leading toward the Olympics.”

And Sacramento?

“As choices go, that would’ve been a good fit,” Keefe allowed, “because it’s close to Stanford. But the truth of the matter is, they’ve already got a strong front line, with (Duane) Causewell and (Wayman) Tisdale. They had other needs.”

The Hawks need rebounds. With Wilkins out, Kevin Willis collected most of them--15.5 per game--but combined, centers Blair Rasmussen and Jon Koncak averaged only eight. Keefe, meanwhile, averaged 12.2 as a Stanford senior and totaled 355 in 1991-92, a school record.

Another good fit, say father and son.

Miles: “That’s what Adam does best. He puts on a blue shirt, grabs his lunch pail and goes to work.”

Adam: “I’ll be a very solid, steady player for them, with the ability to score some points and grab some rebounds.”

And keep grabbing, the Hawks are hoping.

This, then, is what staying in school got Keefe. Projected as a top 15 pick as a junior, he moved up five notches as a senior, good for a few extra hundred thousand dollars. He got his degree, a B.A. in political science. He got all he could out of Stanford, even an NIT championship, and that was all Team Keefe could have asked for.

“When you’re an athlete,” Suzanne Keefe says, “you’re a hero one minute and chopped liver the next if you break your leg or something. It’s kind of silly to count on a future like that. Plan your future so you have something they can’t take away from you.”

Wednesday, Adam Keefe had that and then some. Make the right choices, and the right friends, and one day, it’s pizza all around.

The First Round

Team Player Pos Hgt School 1. Orlando Shaquille O’Neal C 7-1 Louisiana State 2. Charlotte Alonzo Mourning C 6-10 Georgetown 3. Minnesota Christian Laettner F 6-11 Duke 4. Dallas Jim Jackson G 6-6 Ohio State 5. Denver LaPhonso Ellis F 6-8 Notre Dame 6. Washington Tom Gugliotta F 6-9 1/2 N. Carolina State 7. Sacramento Walt Williams G 6-8 Maryland 8. Milwaukee Todd Day F 6-8 1/2 Arkansas 9. Philadelphia C. Weatherspoon F 6-6 So. Mississippi 10. Atlanta Adam Keefe F 6-9 1/2 Stanford 11. Houston Robert Horry F 6-8 Alabama 12. Miami Harold Miner G 6-5 USC 13. Denver Bryant Stith G 6-5 Virginia 14. Indiana Malik Sealy F 6-7 St. John’s 15. Lakers Anthony Peeler G 6-4 Missouri 16. Clippers Randy Woods G 6-0 La Salle 17. Seattle Doug Christie G 6-6 Pepperdine 18. San Antonio Tracy Murray F 6-8 UCLA 19. Detroit Don MacLean F 6-9 UCLA 20. New York Hubert Davis G 6-4 North Carolina 21. Boston Jon Barry G 6-5 Georgia Tech 22. Phoenix Oliver Miller F 6-8 Arkansas 23. Milwaukee Lee Mayberry G 6-2 Arkansas 24. Golden State Latrell Sprewell G 6-4 Alabama 25. Clippers Elmore Spencer C 7-0 UNLV 26. Portland David Johnson F 6-7 Syracuse 27. Chicago Byron Houston F 6-4 Oklahoma State