Not 4 years of college. http://espn.go.com/classic/s/moment010624four-year-rule.html Darryl Dawkins went from high school to the NBA in 1975...
Yes there were hardship cases but most went 4 years. My point here is that drafting players was a different game back then.
I don't think 4 years was the norm, exactly. Jordan was drafted in '84 as a junior. Hakeem played 3 years at U of Houston. Barkley played 3 years at Auburn. Thompson played 4 years at Minnesota, though. More players did, in fact, finish college. The NBA teams really weren't geared toward developing teenagers to be sophisticated adults (e.g. rich).
By then it was getting pretty obvious things were going to change. I think some of it had to do with US Olympics loss. It was getting tougher and tougher to compete against eastern teams that were together for a decade. By 92' the stage had already been set. 80 and 84 were years of boycott and the loss in 88 was not taken well here in the US. That changed the NBA forever.
I think it was the ABA allowing hardship draftees. They scored Dr. J and McGinnis and a few others that would normally have been very high draft picks in the NBA and franchise players. Plus the league was sued by Spencer Haywood (a really good PF, BTW, career 20/10 averages) and lost: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haywood_v._National_Basketball_Ass'n
That radio show was must-listen. The chemistry those two had was incredible. Golden Days of Portland sports talk radio.
I remember being so excited when the Blazers got the #1 pick in the 1978 draft. The Blazers had won the title the year before and then won 50 of their first 60 games in the 1977-78 season before Walton was injured. I figured that Walton would heal up over the summer and then we'd have a front line rotation of Walton, Lucas and Thompson and be set to win titles for years to come. Unfortunately, Walton demanded a trade that summer, sat out the next season pouting when the Blazers wouldn't make the trade, and left the following summer. Thompson was good, but hardly in Walton's league. It was tough watching a potential dynasty slip away. But then we got another chance with Oden, Roy and Aldridge...so there's that.
For yuks... Did you know that Dr. J was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks? If he didn't sign with the ABA, he'd have joined Kareem and Oscar Robertson. Three of the greatest hall of famers, all at the same time on one team.
Wow! Did not know that. Could have changed the course of Basketball as we know it if you think about it? Would Kareem have ended up in Los Angeles if he had that team? Obviously Irving would not have been in Philly. Do the Bucks win multiple championships? Crazy.
