Bob accepted an invitation to the Tidy Bowl by saying:
 BE> More moronic than the trade of Pippen to Chicago for
 BE> whatever-his-name-is?
Olden Polynice. Yes, even more moronic. Let's not forget that Pippen was a
nobody from nowhere, who had impressed a few scouts during tryouts. Polynice 
was a known personality from a known school, who had done well against big 
time competition during his college career (and had gotten some valuable 
schooling overseas before he was picked). Seattle needed a replacement for 
Jack Sikma, who had retired two years before and Polynice wasn't a bad 
choice. McIlvaine, plain and simple, wasn't worth 1/10 contract that he got 
($6 mil per year for a guy who had played 2 years. The only deal that was as 
stupid was Houston's signing of Brent Price, who had completed his 3rd year 
in Washington as a backup and had missed the entire year before) and there's 
no way to equate the lunacy of giving that kind of money (and the subsequent 
effect that it had on Kemp and its long-term effect on league salaries. It 
will be as devastating as Koncak's deal many years ago) to a player that bad 
to the trading of one prospect for another.
BTW, while Pippen for Polynice looks one-sided today, back then, it wasn't.
Let's not forget that Karl Malone lasted until the 13th pick and before that,
John Stockton lasted until the 16th pick. Teams weren't scouting the smaller
schools very well and people didn't think that they had played against the 
kind  of competition that the *big boys* did and weren't worth taking. If it 
wasn't for Utah, both players might have dropped out of the first round 
altogether and their chances of making the NBA dimmed by quite a bit. As 
Malone, Pippen and Stockton began to assert themselves, that attitude 
changed. Today, all three would be lottery picks with Malone being a 
candidate for 1st overall.
--- TrekEd 1.00
---------------