Saturday 19 July 2014

He's back, in Pog form.

During the 1992-93 season, Sean Elliott had a career year for the San Antonio Spurs, becoming the team's second leading scorer and making the All-Star team as a reserve. The Spurs however did not advance past the Western Conference Semi-Finals.

Prior to the 1993-94 season, the Spurs traded Elliott to the Detroit Pistons for league leading rebounder Dennis "The Shrinking Violet" Rodman. Isaiah Morris, David Wood and some picks were thrown in for good measure.

With Rodman in '94, the Spurs didn't even get out of the first round. While this was a step backwards for the organisation, it pales in comparison to what was going on in Motown.

With Elliot, the 1993-94 Detroit Pistons had their stinkiest season since '79-80, going 20-62.
As you would expect, Elliott's numbers dropped off considerably. We've got no idea what was happening in that locker room but we're blaming Isiah Thomas anyway.
Now this is where it gets better. The Spurs, a genius organisation as history has now shown, then traded for Elliott prior to the 1994-95 season. To get him back, they gave up Bill Curley.

Bill was the 22nd pick in the 1994 draft.

We like to refer to trades of this nature as Alf Pog trades. The Spurs gave up the NBA equivalent of Alf Pogs to get back the small forward that they drafted 3rd overall, the small forward who would go on to perform a miracle five years later en route to the 1999 championship.


Today, Elliott is one of the most annoying commentators in the league. We don't know where Bill Curley is.

NB: The Pistons drafted Grant Hill in 1994 and probably didn't need Elliott's services anyway.

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