RIP, Robert "Tractor" Traylor

[Mizzougrad96]

It was a long time ago, but I seem to remember reading someone write the next day about how Dallas had blown it by trading for this guy who was on no one else's radar...

 

[Gutter]

It was a long time ago, but I seem to remember reading someone write the next day about how Dallas had blown it by trading for this guy who was on no one else's radar...

Which is why you shouldn't grade drafts until a few years later ...

Maybe tim had a point.

 

[BYH]

It was a long time ago, but I seem to remember reading someone write the next day about how Dallas had blown it by trading for this guy who was on no one else's radar...

Which is why you shouldn't grade drafts until a few years later ...

Maybe tim had a point.

Hardcore SportsJournalists.com history reference right there.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I imagine Ed Martin setting him up with a nice ride up there, where accidents can't happen.

 

[BYH]

I imagine Ed Martin setting him up with a nice ride up there, where accidents can't happen.

Heaven needed an ill-fated recruiting trip.

 

[wicked]

It was a long time ago, but I seem to remember reading someone write the next day about how Dallas had blown it by trading for this guy who was on no one else's radar...

Pitino really wanted Dirk, and was not happy when he was drafted at 9.

Things worked out with Pierce, of course.

 

[Chef2]

Anyone remember the picture taken of Tractor Traylor standing in front of the Cameron Crazies, and someone tied an empty Chicken McNuggets box to a fishing pole and dangled it right above his head?

 

[Double Down]

Those Cameron Crazies, always so zany with their snotty brand of cheeky racisim.

 

[slappy4428]

I imagine Ed Martin setting him up with a nice ride up there, where accidents can't happen.

Heaven needed an ill-fated recruiting trip.

Saw him play a few times in high school, covered him on occasion in college.
Remember a state championship game where Murray-Wright had either rallied to take the lead or pulled away from Detroit Pershing. Traylor stood in front of the press table at Breslin Center in East Lansing and kept screaming "IT'S MAH HOUSE!! IT"S MAH HOUSE!!" while banging his fist on his chest.
And yet...
Tom Izzo was recruiting him for MSU and thought he had a chance -- until the day he saw Traylor mother get out of a car with Ed Martin.
At that point, ballgame.

 

[ifilus]

Yep. The Taylor-Nowitzki trade fits in nicely with the general stupidity of the Bucks franchise from the 90s onward.

The deal was prearranged. The Bucks knew they never had a chance to sign Nowitzki. He was recruited by Nelson for Dallas and had stated long before the draft that he would not come to the U.S. to play in Milwaukee.

But the truth of the matter, says former Bucks general manager Larry Harris, is the team never considered picking Nowitzki. Harris was the team's director of scouting in 1998 and Bob Weinhauer was the general manager.

"We really never had him (Nowitzki)," Harris said in an interview Wednesday. "The deal was done well before the draft started.

"Had the deal not been done, they (the Mavericks) would have chosen him (Nowitzki)."

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/121668333.html

In June 1998, Dallas coach Don Nelson was one of the few people in the league completely sold on the skinny 19-year-old German as a top-of-the-draft talent. But the wily former Bucks coach also wanted a backup point guard from the Phoenix Suns by the name of Steve Nash.

Nelson knew the Bucks would do almost anything to get Traylor, the powerful forward from Michigan who was projected ahead of Nowitzki. Dallas had the No. 6 pick. The Bucks had No. 9 and No. 19. So Nelson convinced the Bucks - Bob Weinhauer was the general manager at the time; Chris Ford was a couple of months from being fired as coach - to draft Nowitzki for him at No. 9 and Pat Garrity at No. 19, because Nelson also knew the Suns wanted Garrity.

Nelson took Traylor at No. 6 for the Bucks, who kept their part of the prearranged deal and sent both players to Dallas for Tractor. Nelson then moved Garrity to Phoenix for another Hall of Famer.

Consider it one of the shrewdest draft moves ever on the part of Nelson, who made his ex-team look bad in the years to come. But the persistent myth that Nowitzki could have been a Buck? Let's just shoot that one down once and for all in Traylor's memory.

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/121678268.html

 

[Bubbler]

Yep. The Taylor-Nowitzki trade fits in nicely with the general stupidity of the Bucks franchise from the 90s onward.

The deal was prearranged. The Bucks knew they never had a chance to sign Nowitzki. He was recruited by Nelson for Dallas and had stated long before the draft that he would not come to the U.S. to play in Milwaukee.

But the truth of the matter, says former Bucks general manager Larry Harris, is the team never considered picking Nowitzki. Harris was the team's director of scouting in 1998 and Bob Weinhauer was the general manager.

"We really never had him (Nowitzki)," Harris said in an interview Wednesday. "The deal was done well before the draft started.

"Had the deal not been done, they (the Mavericks) would have chosen him (Nowitzki)."

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/121668333.html

In June 1998, Dallas coach Don Nelson was one of the few people in the league completely sold on the skinny 19-year-old German as a top-of-the-draft talent. But the wily former Bucks coach also wanted a backup point guard from the Phoenix Suns by the name of Steve Nash.

Nelson knew the Bucks would do almost anything to get Traylor, the powerful forward from Michigan who was projected ahead of Nowitzki. Dallas had the No. 6 pick. The Bucks had No. 9 and No. 19. So Nelson convinced the Bucks - Bob Weinhauer was the general manager at the time; Chris Ford was a couple of months from being fired as coach - to draft Nowitzki for him at No. 9 and Pat Garrity at No. 19, because Nelson also knew the Suns wanted Garrity.

Nelson took Traylor at No. 6 for the Bucks, who kept their part of the prearranged deal and sent both players to Dallas for Tractor. Nelson then moved Garrity to Phoenix for another Hall of Famer.

Consider it one of the shrewdest draft moves ever on the part of Nelson, who made his ex-team look bad in the years to come. But the persistent myth that Nowitzki could have been a Buck? Let's just shoot that one down once and for all in Traylor's memory.

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/121678268.html

I knew the Bucks never had a chance at Nowitzki. I knew they had been used for another team's benefit. They've mastered that art since 1990 or so.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Anyone remember the picture taken of Tractor Traylor standing in front of the Cameron Crazies, and someone tied an empty Chicken McNuggets box to a fishing pole and dangled it right above his head?

Would it have been less racist if chicken wasn't involved?