It’s a legacy thing. Every year, the Tuesday before the Draft, we rummage around looking for snippets to update our long, in-depth back at the Nets draft history, all the way till 2000, the last time the Nets, still in New Jersey, had the overall No. 1 pick
It’s not just who they selected, but how things went down in various Draft Rooms in the days and hours before Adam Silver or before that David Stern took to the podium ... things like how the Nets broke a promise to take Kyle Lowry (in favor of Marcus Williams); how they desperately reworked the Draft Night deal that brought D’Angelo Russell to Brooklyn; how a second round selection caused the Nets Draft Room to erupt with joy, how more than one top prospect tanked their pre-draft workouts in the years before Jason Kidd arrived; how the Nets took a huge chance on Caris LeVert’s foot while other teams medical departments advised passing on him ; and way back, how an executive’s support for taking Michael Redd in the second round got shouted down.