Draft Over but Not Finished

By MARK HEISLER

June 26, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Right on schedule, the draft hit the fan.

The San Antonio Spurs started it by taking super-prospect Tim Duncan Wednesday and then players started getting traded every which way, with or without acknowledgment by the teams involved, making this the answer to the musical question:

What if they held an NBA draft and you still couldn’t tell where the draftees were going?

Officially, the 76ers, choosing No. 2, drafted Utah (and Diamond Bar High’s) Keith Van Horn.

Unofficially, Van Horn has been traded to the Nets, along with Don MacLean, Lucious Harris and a player to be named later--reportedly Michael Cage--for Jim Jackson, Eric Montross and the Nets’ seventh and 21st picks, who turned out to be Tim Thomas and Anthony Parker.

Not that the Sixers or Nets were admitting it.

“We won’t comment on any trade or speculation,” said the 76ers’ new personnel director, Billy King. “Right now, Keith Van Horn is a 76er.”

Not for long, evidently. The Sixers-Nets trade was reported by a variety of media outlets but the 76ers couldn’t announce it, having already traded Cage in a previous deal to the Celtics for Dino Radja.

The Sixers say Radja failed their physical exam, voiding the deal. The Celtics filed for arbitration, claiming the 76ers exaggerated the extent of Radja’s knee problems to get out of the trade.

Van Horn had refused to work out for the Sixers before the draft, doesn’t want to go there and has been told he’s ticketed for New Jersey. Officially, however, he hasn’t heard anything.

“I told him today’s a great day, enjoy it,” said 76er Coach Larry Brown, the man running the Sixer front office. “Things will work out.”

Brown says the league office has scheduled a hearing on the Celtics’ grievance for Friday. A speedy decision and everyone may know who went where in this draft by the weekend.

“When Dino left us two weeks ago, he was working out, playing tennis and one-on-one basketball and his knee looked great,” Celtic Coach Rick Pitino told TNT. “I find out when he saw two doctors in Philadelphia, they found something totally different. Where the truth is, I’m not sure.”

After the second pick by the 76ers/Nets, the thing actually ran close to form.

Pitino, who’d been drooling over Colorado point guard Chauncey Billups, and who was afraid Brown would take him at No. 2, got his man at No. 3.

The Grizzlies took the other widely-coveted point, Bowling Green’s Antonio Daniels, at No. 4.

Denver, expected to take whichever of the top five players dropped to it, went for Texas Tech’s Tony Battie at No. 5.

The slippery Pitino then surprised everyone with his second pick, at No. 6, taking his own Kentucky player, Ron Mercer. Pitino hadn’t actually said he wouldn’t take Mercer but he intimated he wouldn’t often enough to get everyone off his trail. For good measure, he brought prep star Tracy McGrady in for a late workout and announced that, although he’d said previously he wouldn’t take him that high, he was now considering it.

Wednesday, Pitino took Mercer, proving, if nothing else, the Celtics’ new honcho is well suited for this league.

So it was McGrady’s stock that dropped instead, but not far. The highly-rated young forward went to Toronto at No. 9, making Raptor President Isiah Thomas one happy executive.

There were four official draft-related trades plus the unofficial one. Of those that were announced, the most significant sent Milwaukee’s No. 10 pick, Danny Fortson, plus Joe Wolf and Johnny Newman to Denver for Ervin Johnson. The Bucks need a center but Johnson has already disappointed the Sonics and Nuggets, two other teams that needed centers.

The trade everyone was waiting for--Scottie Pippen for the Celtic lottery picks--didn’t happen, although Pitino confirmed they discussed it right up until the end.

One TNT reporter announced that Michael Jordan called the Bulls, threatening to retire on the spot if Pippen was traded, killing the deal. Another TNT reporter reported the Bulls wanted to take Van Horn with the No. 3 pick, but pulled the plug when he went to the 76ers/Nets at No. 2.

“I spoke to Jerry [Reinsdorf, Bulls owner] at 1 p.m. [Wednesday] and he had not spoken to Michael,” said Jordan’sagent, David Falk, at the draft in Charlotte, N.C.. “I would be very, very surprised if Michael called Jerry.”

Wednesday, nothing should have have surprised anyone very, very much.

NBA Notes

Brian Hill, who coached the Orlando Magic to the NBA finals in 1995 but was fired this season, will be named coach of the Vancouver Grizzlies, The Sporting News has learned. Hill was in the Grizzlies’ locker room shortly before the NBA draft and introduced himself to forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim as his “new coach for next season.” . . . Charles Barkley, who had said as early as June 11 that he was 99% certain he would play another NBA season, added the other 1% Wednesday. Barkley said he is pleased with the inroads Houston has made regarding possible free-agent acquisitions, something he called a requirement to get him to play another season for the Rockets. “I got completely away from basketball for a while,” Barkley said. “I talked with Michael [Jordan] about it, and he thinks I ought to be back. And the past week I spent with my family in Alabama and they agreed.”

* LOCAL SELECTIONS: Rodrick Rhodes of USC is a surprise first-round pick by Houston. C10

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NBA DRAFT: FIRST ROUND

1. SAN ANTONIO -- Tim Duncan (6-11, 260), C, Wake Forest

2. PHILADELPHIA -- Keith Van Horn (6-10, 234), F, Utah

3. BOSTON -- Chauncey Billups (6-3, 207), G, Colorado

4. VANCOUVER -- Antonio Daniels (6-2, 197), G, Bowling Green

5. DENVER -- Tony Battie (6-9 1/2, 227), F, Texas Tech

6. BOSTON -- Ron Mercer (6-7, 209), F, Kentucky

7. NEW JERSEY -- Tim Thomas (6-8, 220), F, Villanova

8. GOLDEN STATE -- Adonal Foyle (6-8 1/2, 263), F, Colgate

9. TORONTO -- Tracy McGrady (6-7, 205), F, Durham, N.C. Mt. Zion Chr. Aca.