For an exclusive, inside look at the Draft Room throughout the day and during the NBA Draft, check back to Sixers.com every hour for updates.


2007 Draft Has Arrived!
The NBA Draft is underway and the pace has quickened considerably in the Sixers Draft Room.

The room is completely full and the noise level fluctuates greatly. One minute it could be near silent when a trade rumor flashes across the screen, the next minute the room is overcome with noise.

The NBA Draft is now on all three TVs in the room and everyone is focused on not only the picks, but the rumors that go with each selection.

Updates throughout the night ...

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6:30PM
T-Minus one hour until the NBA Draft. Down on the event floor, preparations are finalized for the Draft Party. Upstairs at the Wachovia Center, the front office is working through dinner and still burning up the phone lines. As teams go through scenarios and trade rumors throughout the league, they are continuing to formulate their plan of action based on what happens.

King is on the phone, with DiLeo, Witte and Brown close by. The front office is seriously discussing a number of different proposals at this point. Things are starting to get slightly clearer, but there is still a lot to discuss once the Blazers are on the clock.

With everyone in the room, the Sixers have their targets and are doing their due dilligence in order to get the player (or players) they are targeting in tonight's draft.

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5:30pm
The Draft is only two hours away and now the room is as busy as ever.

King is on the phone working through prospective scenarios with teams throughout the league. No real changes to the Sixers rankings or how they feel the draft will play out. The scouts are all discussing different players and taking final votes on who they like at what point in the upcoming draft.

The entire Sixers coaching staff is here, as well as the team's scouts. Other than a brief 10-minute interview Tony DiLeo granted with Comcast SportsNet's Daily News Live, the entire front office is bunkered in the draft room, including Dr. Fish, Head Trainer Kevin Johnson and others. Each person has a specific responsibility to the team and the success of the evening's events.

At this point, the discussion turns to who each member of the front office feels could make a difference with the Sixers ... with the answer to come during the NBA Draft.

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3:30PM
Four hours until the Portland Trail Blazers are on the clock and the Sixers are continuing their pursuit of key targets and continuing to finalize their strategy for the night.

At this point, the Sixers Draft Room is filled with the sounds of cell phones and landlines ringing. King and his staff are all on the phones at different points, including Cvjeticanin, who has seemingly kept an open line to his contacts across the Atlantic.

Everybody is crowded around the main table in the draft room, with King holding a discussion with DiLeo and Witte about a number of different scenarios that are laid out in front of the team. On the other side of the room, Ford and Dr. Fish are having another discussion.

The coaching staff is talking about some of the players the Sixers brought in for workouts over the past three weeks, touching on characteristics some of them brought to PCOM.

At this point, the Sixers main draft boards have some new markings, be it outlines of scenarios or updated player notations.

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2:00PM
The festivities of the NBA Draft are only five hours away and the Sixers Draft Room is in full-swing.

The Sixers boards are filling up quickly, with a full list of all players in the draft on one board, while the front office player rankings, draft projections, potential deals and more are on another. This is where the thousands of miles of travel, hours of watching tape, individual workouts of 46 players and countless meetings all comes together.

There are a number of different players and scenarios being discussed by everybody in the room as they work through lunch. Shubik now has the 61” television working constantly, pulling up different clips of players on his computer and feeding them through to the TV for the front office, coach and scouts.

Dr. Joel Fish, the team’s psychologist, is also in the draft room now, there to lend his thoughts when needed.

And there is still time, as the team is still using all the resources available to them to continue to get every last detail they can on each of the players in whom they are interested. Witte is on the phone discussing the endurance of one prospect, and Gallagher is also working the phone, probing for more insight on another

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12:30AM

Only an hour and a half into the day and the room is absolutely bustling with activity, which is to be expected with four picks in the draft tonight.

The Sixers Draft Room is equipped with seven computers (three desktops and four laptops), as well as seven phones, one speaker phone, three dry-erase boards, one draft board and three televisions, one of which measures in at 61-inches – and virtually everything was in use.

King, Witte, Menendez and Cvjeticanin were all working the phones, which rang every minute or so. Cvjeticanin in particular was speaking with the agent of an international player. While this was all going on in the background, Shubik was preparing the computer system for video on the prospects.

Additionally, it was during this time that Tony DiLeo was finalizing the Sixers’ player rankings on one of the big boards in the room, as well as writing down a couple of different permutations as to how the Sixers Basketball Operations Department believes the evening could play out.

Things move quickly throughout the league, as during this time it was announced that the Rockets obtained the 54th pick in the draft from the Orlando Magic in exchange for cash considerations. As quickly as it was announced, the Sixers’ draft boards were updated.

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11:00AM

The culmination of months of preparation finally arrives tonight, as the NBA Draft will take place at The WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden tonight, starting at 7:00pm. After three straight 15 hour days at PCOM, President Billy King is having the entire basketball operations staff arrive at 11:00am at the Wachovia Center now for what will be another long day of working the phones, studying tape and fielding calls from other teams.


Already this morning, King and Sr. Vice President of Basketball Operations Tony DiLeo were reviewing tape of some of the prospects with Chairman Ed Snider.

Among those joining King in the Sixers Draft Room will be Sr. Vice President of Basketball Operations Tony DiLeo, Executive Vice President Larry Brown, Director of Player Personnel Courtney Witte, Pro Personnel Scouts Chris Ford and Frank Zanin, scouts Joe Gallagher, Gene Shue, Mike VandeGarde, Al Menendez and Frank DiLeo, European Scouting Coordinator Danko Cvjeticanin, Video Coordinator Monte Shubik, Head Athletic Trainer Kevin Johnson, and the Sixers coaching staff, including Head Coach Maurice Cheeks.