Sixers 2008 Draft Center

2008 NBA Draft Blog: live coverage from the War Room

7:55pm: 3 Down

The Draft is falling into place as expected, based on the reaction from inside Draft Central. Everybody is watching the picks fall off the board. It goes to show how much prep goes into this and how much communication the Sixers have with other teams.

7:10pm: A Full House

Draft coverage on ESPN has started and the conference room is about to get very, very crowded. The assistant coaches, scouts, front office and executives will be in the room, including Comcast-Spectacor Chairman Ed Snider and President Peter Luukko. The storm has begun: a whirlwind of phone calls and discussions, both internally and with other teams.

Update: 7:32pm - The entire staff is here at Draft Central, including the training staff, legal counsel, etc. Here we go. It is very quiet up here now, with months and weeks of work coming to a culmination tonight. The Sixers are scheduled to go off with the 16th pick in the draft - approximately an hour and 45 minutes from now. There are so many people here that the team is utilizing Tony DiLeo's office, which adjoins the the conference room.

6:35pm: Dinner Break

Coverage of the Draft will be starting shortly on ESPN. The front office has broken for dinner, with many of them in Ed Stefanski's office. Chicago is slated to go on the clock at 7:32pm EDT tonight. The Sixers are still holding the sixteenth overall pick.

6:00pm: Talking Heads

We are at T-Minus 90 minutes until Stern comes to the podium for the first time. In the meantime, President and GM Ed Stefanski just did an interview with Bill Vargas from Fox29, while Coach Cheeks did two, one with Keith Russell with ABC6 and Don Bell with CBS3. It is part of the quick media circuit the two men squeezed in during the pre-draft discussions. Then it was right back up to Draft Central.

The buzz around draft central is the Richard Jefferson deal with Milwaukee, who sent Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons to the Nets; the first reported move of the night was one that elicited a good deal of reaction.

Food is certainly not going to be a problem tonight; there is quite an impressive spread right outside the door.

5:30pm: Intelligence Report

How deep is the intel the Sixers have on players? Our team just completed a discussion regarding the information they had received. It is one of the the reasons Dr. Joel Fish - the team's psychiatrist - is in included in the war room.

Communication is the key tonight, particularly with everything going on around the league. There are six phones on the conference room table, plus one main speaker phone. That doesn't include the five dedicated high-speed internet lines that are still available - even with three laptops already set up.

June 26, 5:15pm: Live from PCOM

The NBA Draft is about two hours away and the 76ers "Draft Central" is almost packed to the hilt. Everything will take place from the team's third floor conference room at their practice facility, located at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM). Sr. VP/Asst. GM Tony DiLeo and Dir. of Player Personnel Courtney Witte are leading a round-table discussion with the scouts at this moment.

The room at PCOM has draft boards on three of the four walls (two boards are on one wall). The front office has two televisions running and their laptop set up in the corner - all avenues available and easily accessible for continued research on prospects.

There are assigned seats for everybody; very organized. Meanwhile, Head Coach Maurice Cheeks will be heading downstairs momentarily for television interviews.

June 25, 5:07pm: Ready to Roll

As the 76ers personnel staff make their final preparations for the 2008 draft, we'll be bringing you live coverage of the day's developments from the Sixers' training facility draft headquarters at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Check back often for the latest scoop on the Sixers' prospects for the sixteenth pick.