1998 NBA Draft!

"Was it Jordan or Hakeem Olajuwon!?"

"I wanted them both! I wanted them all, ahhh!"

"Damn it, why didn't the team have any assets I could trade?"

On June 29, 1998, in a private suite at Madison Square Garden in New York, Elgin Baylor and Clippers owner Donald Sterling anxiously paced back and forth.

As one of the legendary fifty greatest players and one of the top three small forwards in history of this era—alongside Larry Bird and Dr. J—Baylor was feeling nervous as well!

This was his first time making the first overall pick as a general manager!

This year's rookies were surrounded by so much controversy and public debate!

It seemed that any choice could be justified. There were countless possible answers, but which one was truly the best?

Was it the next Hakeem Olajuwon, Olowokandi?

Was it UFO Vince Carter, who had just signed the third-largest rookie shoe deal in history?

Or one of the other players?

Baylor wished he had a whole pile of draft picks in hand! This draft looked better and better the more he studied it! He even felt it could rival the Diamond Generation of 1984 and the Golden Generation of 1996!

The top picks of '84 and '96—Hakeem Olajuwon and Allen Iverson—had both become superstars. Hakeem had even won two straight championships and built a minor dynasty, an accomplishment alone that made him the foremost of the Four Great Centers!

Iverson had become the shortest first overall pick in NBA history. Even Kobe and Jordan couldn't stop his scoring ability! His dazzling crossover highlights practically occupied more than half the season's best dribbling clips.

And '84 and '96 still had hidden gems like Kobe and Barkley!

What about this year?

The Clippers had held a great many private workouts, and many