Ron Mercer Q & A

[kevin <kevinlok@yahoo.com>]

http://www.nba.com/bulls/news/mercer_010619.html;$sessionid$IADAM2AHUZ45DFMDAYRCFFA?_requestid=55043

The Bulls guard remembers his draft night and the workouts that led up
to it

Q & A with Ron Mercer: 1997 NBA Draft Memories

Bulls.com: What do you remember most about the week of the draft?
Ron Mercer: The one thing that stands out is that I was really excited
to go (to Charlotte, where the draft was held). You never know with
the ins and outs of the draft. You can be (projected to be picked) in
the top 2 or 3 one day but on the day of the draft you can slide for
some reason- you don't have any workouts that time but you can still
slide. The first media day we had the day before the draft, all the
guys were around me and I never knew why. I wondered if something had
changed. I thought maybe I had moved up but all the questions were
directed towards me about sliding and I never knew why.


Most of the media was telling me, "Your college coach (Rick Pitino,
then head coach for the Boston Celtics, had the third and sixth picks
that year) is not going to take you in the draft. He says that you
can't create your own shot, things like that. I never knew how serious
it was until draft day- then I saw on TV that I was going to slide to
12 or 13. I came to find out that it was a trick that Coach Pitino
played at the time. He wanted to be able to get a point guard (the
Celtics drafted Chauncey Billups with the third pick) and a shooting
guard at the time. The teams picking at 4 and 5 both wanted point
guards also, so he knew I would be more available at the sixth than
Chauncey would have. He then told everyone he wouldn't pick me and at
the end of the day, his plan worked. I was very happy to go sixth and
to be reunited with my college coach be back with some of the other
guys like (Kentucky teammate) Antoine Walker, too.

Bulls.com: Describe what you felt when NBA Commissioner David Stern
announced your name.
Mercer: It was exciting. During the time I was praying- I really
wanted to be a Celtic no matter which pick it was. Once he called out
my name, I was really relieved, just to know that I was going to be
there around guys that I was already familiar with.


Bulls.com: What were your draft workouts like?
Mercer: The workouts are strange sometimes because you never know what
they are looking for. For instance, I worked out for Denver, who had
the fifth pick that year, and I felt it was my best workout. They did
a lot of running and shooting drills and those are really parts of my
game. I never understood this and I should have asked them while I was
there (Mercer played for Denver during the 1999-2000 season), but the
first drill they had me doing was shooting off screens. I made 28 out
of 30 shots- it was my best performance by far and they still didn't
take me. You would think- from a basketball standpoint- that was by
best workout, as far as shooting goes at least. I also worked out for
Philly, Vancouver, New Jersey and about two of those teams did
physiological tests in addition to the physical workout. In a player's
mind, you really never know exactly what a team is looking for and so
they just try to fit everything in.


Bulls.com: You entered the draft after your sophomore year at
University of Kentucky. Does it surprise you that the draft has
progressively gotten younger and younger?
Mercer: It is something that you could see coming, more and more every
year. My take on it is that everybody has different things that they
have on their minds. My reasons for leaving were that I felt I was
ready to leave and I had people- including my coaches- telling me that
it was best for me to leave. There wasn't going to be a big step up
for me (in the draft) if I had stayed another year and there would
have been the chance for injury. My situation was probably different
from other guys- some may have financial problems or other things
going on so it's different for everybody.

-- Adam Fluck, Bulls.com