Their Time Is NowCollison and Ridnour Key to Sonics 2005-06 Season
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Kevin Pelton, SUPERSONICS.COM | October 31, 2005
"A little guy, suspect shooter - I always had a little bit of doubt," says Pendergraft. "I remember calling Wally on my cell phone. I said, 'We've got no choice. If we're going to take a point guard, we've got to take this guy. He's too quick, he's too fast. He's making shots I didn't think he could make."
"It's a little bit untypical of the way teams do it … my personal preference is I don't like to go in and draft for a position unless it's late in the draft - like 25, 26, 27. I like to focus in and take the best player. But we had some pretty good players."
Collison strongly stated his case for the Sonics in his workout at The Furtado Center prior to the draft, a workout widely regarded as one of the best in franchise history.
"He had a great workout," says Pendergraft. "Matter of fact, I remember him shooting the ball better than any of us thought. At KU, he mainly played in the low block and at the high post."
The Sonics knew they wanted Collison, but picking 12th, there was no guarantee he would still be available.
"We didn't think there was any chance he'd be there," Pendergraft says. "We thought New York would take him and not Sweetney. We were shocked that he was there when we took him. We soft-sold him. We didn't talk to anybody about Nick Collison, how good we thought he was."
But the Sonics were only halfway done. After the Memphis Grizzlies picked, the Sonics would be up again, looking for a point guard. In the days before the draft, the Sonics had eliminated Hinrich and Ford from consideration, realizing both players would be gone by the time they picked.
They were, as was UNLV's Banks, taken 13th by Memphis as part of a pre-arranged trade with the Boston Celtics. Brazilian Barbosa had been eliminated from consideration, but there was something of a split within the organization between Ridnour - favored by the front office - and the coaching staff's favorite, Louisville product Gaines.
"The real problem was that the coaching staff kind of liked Gaines," says Sund. "Everybody was big on Hinrich, but he didn't get there. Our scouts and Wally, the consensus there was Luke. The problem was the media wasn't (on board). You were a little nervous, but it turned out great."
A sure lottery pick at the start of the draft process, the Pac-10's Player of the Year had been dogged by concerns about his size and defensive ability. Critics were everywhere; during ESPN's draft coverage, one analyst infamously suggested Ridnour "couldn't guard the chair I'm sitting in."
"I don't care what they say, but I heard what they said," says Ridnour. "Where they got that, I don't know. It seems like they start a rumor about every single player that gets drafted. It just goes with the territory."
The Sonics were confident that Ridnour - voted Oregon's Defensive Player of the Year as a junior before entering the draft - could hold his own. They were also excited about the potential combination of Ridnour's ability to deliver the ball to shooters and their star players on the wings, Allen and Lewis.
"I remember calling him 'The Brett Favre of college basketball,'" says Pendergraft. "He can really deliver the ball. He's got unbelievable respect for his receivers. He knows how to get it to Ray, Vlade and Rashard where they want it. Because we had these shooters and because he was such a great deliverer of the ball, it was a no-brainer."
When Stern walked to the podium to announce Ridnour as the Sonics pick, the most important 10 minutes in recent Sonics history were complete.