Did you know that the Cleveland Cavaliers’s assistant director of player development, Vitaly Potapenko, was selected ahead of Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash in the 1996 NBA Draft. Selected by none other than the Cleveland Cavaliers themselves?
Listen to the comments during the draft and you wouldn’t think the Cleveland Cavaliers made a mistake at all.
It’s a strange tale, one where the pick acquired to get Potapenko required the Cleveland Cavaliers to trade Mark Price. That’s right, Price, who would finish his Cavs career in the franchise’s top-10 of every major statistical category.