Revisiting the 1996 NBA draft | I Love 90s Basketball | NBA on ESPN

Revisiting the 1996 NBA draft | I Love 90s Basketball | NBA on ESPN

Maria Taylor, Richard Jefferson, Jalen Rose, Paul Pierce, Jay Williams and Michael Wilbon look back at the 1996 NBA draft, where Kobe Bryant was selected 13th overall by the Charlotte Hornets before being traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. They evaluate the fashion choices from Allen Iverson, Ray Allen and Steve Nash, who were all picked that year. The group then debates where the 1996 draft class ranks all time, specifically against the 1984 class that featured Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley.

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Kobe, Nash, or Iverson: 1996 NBA Redraft | Bill Simmons’s Book of Basketball 2.0 | The Ringer

In the first installment of The Ringer’s NBA Redraftables, Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo redraft the historic 1996 NBA draft. While Kobe Bryant is the obvious first selection, there’s a lot of debate over where Steve Nash, Allen Iverson, and Ray Allen belong. Simmons and Russillo parse that and continue to draft the top 14 players from one of the best drafts in NBA history.

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40 Comments

  1. Doctor Slayer

    Imagine if the 1996 draft come to play against today nba players.
    Will Ja, Luka, Jared Jackson, trey, Anthony Edwards, Scottie Barnes have a chance against
    Kobe, Nash, AI, Ray Allen, Shareef and Camby?

  2. Polo

    Ring count?! Kobe and Fish have 5, Ray-Ray has 2, Antoine Walker has 1, Samaki Walker has 2, Peja has 1, & Ben Wallace has 1. (Ai, Camby, Kittles & Dampier) have finals appearances.

  3. EC_

    13th pick-
    One of the Goat
    14th- Serbian Sniper
    15th- Canadian Magician
    17th Former Mvp contender
    Undrafted: DPOTY, REBOUNDER
    that's insane

  4. The Nas

    Greatest draft ever was the 84

  5. Jason Williams

    Y the dnt say starbury?

  6. Jackson Darcus

    Best Class of all Time!

  7. B D

    150th comment 🤒🤕😴

  8. Daemon Targaryen

    Iverson and Nash won nothing. Kobe & Ray combine for 7 rings. MJ & Dream combine for 8. Heatles combine for 8 but 6 when they were together.

  9. Daemon Targaryen

    The 1996 NBA draft class is NOT the best class. Might only be the 3rd best. It is the deepest. Mike Wilbon and Jalen Rose are correct. The 1984 class won more rings and is still better.

  10. Daemon Targaryen

    More of MJ's personal life
    – He is the youngest boy of 5 children. It's Larry, Deloris, James Jr., Michael, and Rosalyn in that order.

    – James & Deloris are his parents name. And yes, Mike's eldest sister has the same name as his mother.

    – MJ's mother breastfed him until he was 3!

    – MJ's first wife was Juanita Vanoy. If ESPN gets an interview, do not ask him about that $168M divorce settlement in 2006.

    – MJ's children from Juanita are Marcus, Jeffrey, and Jasmine (Micki Jae).

    – MJ's grandson's name is Rakeem Michael Christmas.

    – MJ's second wife is Yvette Prieto. She's a Cuban model and used to date Enrique Iglesias.

    – MJ & Yvette have twin daughters named Ysabel and Victoria. Yvette shares something similar to Rachel Nichols giving birth to twin girls.

    – He was generally called Mike Jordan when he was younger.

    – He used to lose to his older brother Larry all the time 1-on-1 until he got taller. This drove MJ's competitiveness drive years later.

    – None of MJ's immediate family are taller than 5'8. He's the anomaly.

    – MJ used to idolize the Lakers and Magic Johnson in college. He had a plate from a gf that said MAGIC MIKE. MJ wanted to play for the Lakers.

    – MJ and Magic were not initially close those first few years. They got closer during Dream Team.

    – MJ is really good in math. He's a numbers guy.

    – MJ actually went back to school and got a bachelor's degree in geology.

    – MJ has mentioned in one of his summer camps that he would've been a weatherman if he wasn't a basketball player.

    – MJ initially didn't want to sign with Nike. He was into Converse.

    – His favorite Jordans are XI and III.

    – One of his favorite movies was The Matrix.

    – MJ doesn't believe there is such a thing as the greatest of all-time. It's only a marketing term. But it seems in real life, he's full of himself. Loves to trash talk.

    If MJ drove next to Nick Wright in his tinted Ferrari with a cigar in his mouth, Nick would be blowing goats and not talking about them! 🤣 I know a lot of stuff about MJ. If you're an MJ fan who had all his documentaries and books, he's almost like a relative you revere.

    What's his current family life like? Since going Howard Hughes recluse on us since 2003, we hardly really know him these last 20 years. MJ was never really close to anybody younger than him except for maybe Kobe and he did hug Allen Iverson for his HoF. He wasn't close with much of his peers either. Scottie and Horace were best friends in that first threepeat.

    I want to know what's MJ's daily routine? How often does he go on the Internet? Does he read stuff from social media using a burner account ala KD? What's on his music playlist. Does he binge on Netflix and what shows and movies does he watch? What's his favorite Ferrari that he's owned?

    We can't ask questions about his extramarital affairs, his father's murder, his gambling allegations, the Nike sweat shops, or his politics. Either too personal or too divisive. You can't blame MJ for kids were getting robbed and killed for his shoes. People were robbing and killing others for a PlayStation 3 and iPhone. Should Sony and Apple offered them for free?

    We know MJ especially of his past and the endless commercials he was in during the 1990s but we still don't really know him. This is why when MJ spoke at Kobe's memorial, the whole world stopped and wanted to listen. I heard someone in Staples scream WE LOVE YOU! before MJ spoke.

    We were all wondering what he was going to say? Almost a nervous laughter when he said a joke knowing how blunt he can be. I'm still sad Kobe is gone. He'll still be there in this docuseries being interviewed but he would've loved watching the finished product. And in a lot of Kobe's own short videos, he always puts MJ highlights.

    I'm curious if MJ still talks to Phil? Or how close is he is currently with Jeanie? Obviously, Jeanie lost her dad too like MJ and both struggled as owners. They started their own tequila brand. MJ has this Laker connection as Magic, Worthy, Phil, and Jeanie are his friends and Kob was his little bro.

    The Last Dance opens up so many interview opportunities. It's going to be a huge moneymaker and will provide content for ESPN for at least 5 straight Sundays. It's like reviewing a movie as each one is longer than a Game of Thrones episode. The greatest of all-time documentary about the greatest of all-time.

    God bless, Michael Jeffrey Jordan. God blessing a 🏀 god. Please don't die, Mike! 🙏🏻 I told y'all after Kobe died, another MJ had to "Heal The World". Be our hero, Mike. Be our monument, be our angel, be anything we need you to be. Or just be our G.O.A.T.🦸🏿‍♂️Superman to the rescue in one more week.

    NCAA: 🏆 Olympics: 🥇🥇
    NBA: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

    There will never be another.

  11. Dvante Botley

    Bro right now could be like the year of games. Fight night, basketball, football etc. Ain't nobody doing nothing. this is probably as accurate as it will ever get

  12. THAT GUY J

    I NEVER KNEW JALEN'S BACKGROUND WAS JUST A PICTURE?!!!

  13. Shawn Gamble

    1996 draft had greater players than the 1984 class. The 1996 draft is the greatest draft ever hands down……

  14. Mr Nobody

    A lot of teams passed on Kobe, because he was coming straight out of high school. In 1996, many teams did not want to take the risk of taking a high school player high in the draft. Kevin Garnett and Kobe changed how GMs looked at high school prospects.

  15. Hoodrat Pat

    No Shareef? Starbury? D Fish? Like Rich said Kerry Kittles?!?!

  16. Random Reece

    People in Philly knew. Should have never traded him Charlotte. Only other team that thought about him was NewJersey!

  17. Thomas F.

    The best draft class was 1984 ..period!!

  18. Rashar Banks

    Ppl forget this.. Kobe was honestly suppose to go to the Nets at #8 John Calipari wanted him but I believe it was the GM wasn’t big on taking a HS kid .. went wit Kerry Kittles cuz he went to college smh .

  19. N0 0utz

    Put all your stats altogether if you want nobody was taking no damn Ray Allen ahead of A.I. in his prime get real Bill and Russilo.

  20. Rickle Pick

    “Look, I’m not trying to sound anti-Iverson. I just want to list every fault he’s had on and off the court and tell you why his successes are overrated.”

  21. Thelight354

    Easy to say this in hindsight but nobody was a better player in that 96 draft than iverson at that time. Nash never made a finals with all that talent. No way he’s better than ai. Iverson wind at least one with the suns. Overrated.

  22. bpatrik

    Honestly in the time of the draft AI's 1st pick wasn't even a question. The redraft is a bit of about the total careers review

  23. Christopher Sancho

    Ray and iverson go above nash.

  24. Siem

    The Iverson slander was crazy. How can you say Van Horn was a legitimate #2….Stackhouse got traded early because his envy of AI……. Knocking him for playing 40 plus minutes……Knock him for not winning more in the postseason, but then T-Mac never made it out the first round even when he and Yao was healthy…. Love Ray Allen but no matter how much they want to re-write history, AI beat him in the ECF, and compare AIs help to PP and KG, and then Lebron, Wade, and Bosh….in his best Years Nash played with Dirk, Finley, Amare, Marion, Joe Jonhnson etc. Ijs

  25. JMVDD

    Thank you. Iverson is overrated as hell

  26. AP THA GREAT 28

    The iverson hate is unreal

  27. Randy Lutz

    What a draft this year was. Kittles at 13 is good.

  28. Vanslang

    I love these guys outside the box takes. Even though I might not always agree they at least have sound reasoning for their opinion

  29. Peekul1

    You'd still take Iverson over all those guys. Nobody takes 5 years to develop a number 1 when the obvious number 1 is on the board.

  30. Evan Pena

    Nash @ 2 is bozo level > with Iverson all of Nash’s teams would be better

  31. Jacob Online

    These are the type of ppl that vote for Mvp and espn all time rankings they know nothing about era position and skill

  32. Daffy Stardust

    Everyone always has a bunch of excuses about why they lost to the Spurs.
    Funny how they won 5 rings and they apparently didn't deserve any of them.

  33. Simon

    watching this 3 years later laughing at the offhand "That'll be the Brady Bucs jersey"

  34. TitanKiller

    Nash only had a better output than iverson for like 4-5 years when he was 31+, before then iverson was much better and more impactful, for the first 6 years of his career, he’s a better player than nash, and FAR better than anyone in the draft that isn’t Kobe, there is no question

  35. David Anderson

    As long as the Dubs don’t even consider Todd “Stiff “ Fuller (dear lord that guy sucked and he wasn’t anything special in college)

  36. uberneanderthal

    Iverson fans are delusional. in 2002 Iverson's FG% was 39, while his USG% was 38%. gotta be the only "superstar" since the shotclock whose USG% is almost identical to his FG%.

    I take Peja over him, all day.

  37. Dennis Espiritu

    You know how stacked this draft class is when Iverson is at 4th pick

  38. Arham Khan

    Absolutely disrespectful to Iverson. Give Iverson Wade and Bosh and see what happens. Give him Shaq, see what happens. Give him Joker and see. The ONLY reason Iverson is ringless is because of Kobe Bryant. He ran into them multiple times in denver. And he handed Kobe his only loss in 2001 (and SHAQ). There are no 10 players who reached a higher apex in basketball. Iverson averaged 33 and 6. Steph shooting 8-10 3s a game and can't do it. NBA PPG average by teams was 80 PPG back then. Now, its 115. Get real.

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