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ShareThe “Seen” from Secaucus
Last night, the NBA held their annual Draft Lottery at the NBAE Studios in Secaucus, NJ. The Sixers, as expected, left with the 12th pick in the draft. But what fans saw on ESPN was only part of the action – Sixers.com was on-site and behind-the-scenes from beginning to end. Here is the timeline from the night:
5:55PM – The Sixers contingent – including President Billy King, Sr. Vice President of Business Operations Lara Price and Director of Public Relations Michael Preston – arrived at the NBAE studios to receive their credentials and begin the evening. Each team was assigned a representative from the NBA to escort them around the studio for the evening and make sure everyone made it to their assigned spots on time.
6:15PM – Upon arrival, King is immediately led through a maze of hallways back to where NBA Radio is set-up to conduct yet another interview. On the ride up to Secaucus, King conducted two radio interviews and spoke with another reporter about the prospects for the evening.
There is some really cool wallpaper lining the hallways – the background is basketball material and it is interspersed with all sorts of old-school covers of NBA players from magazines like Sports Illustrated. There’s also a framed poster of the original Air Force I crew – which includes Moses Malone and Bobby Jones.
6:25PM – King heads to the media tent to conduct a group interview. The Philadelphia media was well represented at Secaucus, with all of the team’s beat writers present, as well as five columnists and four television stations on-hand. At one point during the night, someone was overheard to remark that it looked like half of the media in the tent was from Philadelphia.
As King entered, Commissioner David Stern was granting an interview with local and national media. Slowly, about half of the group gravitated toward King, who gave about a 20-minute interview to the assembled press. When the two finished, King and Commissioner Stern exchanged a hand-shake and some brief words before each moved on to their next scheduled destination.
6:50PM – King went back through the hospitality tent to the make-up room, while Price was escorted to the third floor conference room where the actually lottery process took place, separate from the rest of the evening’s events. In fact, the security was so tight upstairs that Price – armed only with a box of Lucky Charms and a replica ring from the movie “Lord of the Rings” given to her by Comcast-Spectacor Vice President, Premium Seating Dennis Shea for good luck – had her cell phone and BlackBerry confiscated until the proceedings concluded for the night.
7:25PM – From the official itinerary for the evening: “Lottery Room 3A on Lockdown.”
7:30PM – Price was upstairs getting ready for the actual drawing and receiving the contingency plans on everything from power failure to the machine breaking down. She was given a print-out of every team’s combinations so she could follow along as the balls were drawn. In what must have been pretty excruciating, Price and 13 other team representatives, as well as a partner from Ernst and Young and a few NBA officials, knew the results almost an hour before the rest of the world.
Meanwhile, King was downstairs in the hospitality area. He had dinner with Boston Celtics announcer and Hall of Famer Tommy Heinsohn, talked baseball with Comcast SportsNet’s Dei Lynam, stopped for a handshake with former Knicks center Patrick Ewing and had a conversation with NBA Sr. Vice President of Basketball Operations Stu Jackson. The dinner spread was impressive …
The hospitality tent was filled with NBA legends, including Larry Bird, Lenny Wilkens, Jerry West, Dominique Wilkens and more. But the two people that stood out the most were a couple of Sonics fans, dressed in Shawn Kemp Sonics uniforms, circa 1991 (complete with the white socks with green stripes pulled up to their knees) that looked to be two sizes too small. They topped the look off with sunglasses, head bands and shaggy wigs.
7:50PM – With the unveiling just under an hour away, King and Preston were brought into the studio. The set included the 14 podiums for the team representatives, while the studio desk was in the foreground where Fred Hickman, Greg Anthony and Jay Bilas were preparing for the show.
7:55PM - The group was assembled near the mini-stage in front of the giant television screen where the order would ultimately be displayed. The run-down of the evening was explained and the NBA covered every detail, including where King would sit to with whom he would mingle prior to everyone taking their seats at the podium.
A few quick notes on the studio, which was incredibly impressive: First of all, it was crowded off-camera. There were NBA officials, television cameras, stage managers, media and more both in the studio audience seats and walking around behind the scenes. Almost one whole side of the studio was filled with Philadelphia media, while the other side included everybody from NBA PR representatives to adidas personnel. Also, because of the number of stage lights and how much heat they produce, the studio was air-conditioned to the max.
8:25PM – During their preparation for the show, ESPN kept cutting to live shots of “Draft Lottery Viewing Parties” in both Boston and Memphis, the two teams with statistically the best chance to win the top picks in the upcoming NBA Draft.
8:35PM – The show begins and as everyone saw at home, it included an interview with Commissioner Stern where he gave his thoughts on how deep the 2007 NBA Draft was going to be. Then, after introductions from ESPN’s Mark Jones, the envelopes were opened.
8:44PM – King, the studio audience and the nation sees the Sixers logo comes up in the envelope marked 12, which is precisely what the Sixers Basketball Operations department has been preparing for since the season concluded. For the record, Price knew this a little over an hour ago.
8:46PM – The Bucks logo comes up in the envelope marked “6,” meaning that they – along with the Celtics and Grizzlies – fell as far as they could and that three teams behind them – Atlanta, Seattle and Portland – jumped into the top three in the draft. When the Bucks logo was pulled out of the envelope, there was an audible gasp from the audience.
8:58PM – The Blazers won the rights to the first overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, but the evening didn’t end there for the Sixers. As the studio cleared out – Larry Bird was one of the first to exit – King went outside to call Mr. Snider with the results of the lottery.
9:00PM – Price is finally allowed out of the NBA Draft Lottery version of confinement.
9:05PM – King holds a post-lottery briefing with the Philadelphia media, then breaks off to do a sit-down interview with Comcast SportsNet and finishes with an interview with a CBS pool reporter who hooked up via satellite to the local CBS affiliate. On the way home, King would call-in to a radio show and talk to two more reporters before the night is over.
The Sixers will now prepare for the Orlando Pre-Draft camp, which begins on June 29 and then will begin bringing in players for individual workouts.
Keep checking into to www.sixers.com for more details.
5:55PM – The Sixers contingent – including President Billy King, Sr. Vice President of Business Operations Lara Price and Director of Public Relations Michael Preston – arrived at the NBAE studios to receive their credentials and begin the evening. Each team was assigned a representative from the NBA to escort them around the studio for the evening and make sure everyone made it to their assigned spots on time.
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There is some really cool wallpaper lining the hallways – the background is basketball material and it is interspersed with all sorts of old-school covers of NBA players from magazines like Sports Illustrated. There’s also a framed poster of the original Air Force I crew – which includes Moses Malone and Bobby Jones.
6:25PM – King heads to the media tent to conduct a group interview. The Philadelphia media was well represented at Secaucus, with all of the team’s beat writers present, as well as five columnists and four television stations on-hand. At one point during the night, someone was overheard to remark that it looked like half of the media in the tent was from Philadelphia.
As King entered, Commissioner David Stern was granting an interview with local and national media. Slowly, about half of the group gravitated toward King, who gave about a 20-minute interview to the assembled press. When the two finished, King and Commissioner Stern exchanged a hand-shake and some brief words before each moved on to their next scheduled destination.
6:50PM – King went back through the hospitality tent to the make-up room, while Price was escorted to the third floor conference room where the actually lottery process took place, separate from the rest of the evening’s events. In fact, the security was so tight upstairs that Price – armed only with a box of Lucky Charms and a replica ring from the movie “Lord of the Rings” given to her by Comcast-Spectacor Vice President, Premium Seating Dennis Shea for good luck – had her cell phone and BlackBerry confiscated until the proceedings concluded for the night.
7:25PM – From the official itinerary for the evening: “Lottery Room 3A on Lockdown.”
7:30PM – Price was upstairs getting ready for the actual drawing and receiving the contingency plans on everything from power failure to the machine breaking down. She was given a print-out of every team’s combinations so she could follow along as the balls were drawn. In what must have been pretty excruciating, Price and 13 other team representatives, as well as a partner from Ernst and Young and a few NBA officials, knew the results almost an hour before the rest of the world.
Meanwhile, King was downstairs in the hospitality area. He had dinner with Boston Celtics announcer and Hall of Famer Tommy Heinsohn, talked baseball with Comcast SportsNet’s Dei Lynam, stopped for a handshake with former Knicks center Patrick Ewing and had a conversation with NBA Sr. Vice President of Basketball Operations Stu Jackson. The dinner spread was impressive …
The hospitality tent was filled with NBA legends, including Larry Bird, Lenny Wilkens, Jerry West, Dominique Wilkens and more. But the two people that stood out the most were a couple of Sonics fans, dressed in Shawn Kemp Sonics uniforms, circa 1991 (complete with the white socks with green stripes pulled up to their knees) that looked to be two sizes too small. They topped the look off with sunglasses, head bands and shaggy wigs.
7:50PM – With the unveiling just under an hour away, King and Preston were brought into the studio. The set included the 14 podiums for the team representatives, while the studio desk was in the foreground where Fred Hickman, Greg Anthony and Jay Bilas were preparing for the show.
7:55PM - The group was assembled near the mini-stage in front of the giant television screen where the order would ultimately be displayed. The run-down of the evening was explained and the NBA covered every detail, including where King would sit to with whom he would mingle prior to everyone taking their seats at the podium.
A few quick notes on the studio, which was incredibly impressive: First of all, it was crowded off-camera. There were NBA officials, television cameras, stage managers, media and more both in the studio audience seats and walking around behind the scenes. Almost one whole side of the studio was filled with Philadelphia media, while the other side included everybody from NBA PR representatives to adidas personnel. Also, because of the number of stage lights and how much heat they produce, the studio was air-conditioned to the max.
8:25PM – During their preparation for the show, ESPN kept cutting to live shots of “Draft Lottery Viewing Parties” in both Boston and Memphis, the two teams with statistically the best chance to win the top picks in the upcoming NBA Draft.
8:35PM – The show begins and as everyone saw at home, it included an interview with Commissioner Stern where he gave his thoughts on how deep the 2007 NBA Draft was going to be. Then, after introductions from ESPN’s Mark Jones, the envelopes were opened.
8:44PM – King, the studio audience and the nation sees the Sixers logo comes up in the envelope marked 12, which is precisely what the Sixers Basketball Operations department has been preparing for since the season concluded. For the record, Price knew this a little over an hour ago.
8:46PM – The Bucks logo comes up in the envelope marked “6,” meaning that they – along with the Celtics and Grizzlies – fell as far as they could and that three teams behind them – Atlanta, Seattle and Portland – jumped into the top three in the draft. When the Bucks logo was pulled out of the envelope, there was an audible gasp from the audience.
8:58PM – The Blazers won the rights to the first overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, but the evening didn’t end there for the Sixers. As the studio cleared out – Larry Bird was one of the first to exit – King went outside to call Mr. Snider with the results of the lottery.
9:00PM – Price is finally allowed out of the NBA Draft Lottery version of confinement.
9:05PM – King holds a post-lottery briefing with the Philadelphia media, then breaks off to do a sit-down interview with Comcast SportsNet and finishes with an interview with a CBS pool reporter who hooked up via satellite to the local CBS affiliate. On the way home, King would call-in to a radio show and talk to two more reporters before the night is over.
The Sixers will now prepare for the Orlando Pre-Draft camp, which begins on June 29 and then will begin bringing in players for individual workouts.
Keep checking into to www.sixers.com for more details.
