Joe Bryant (above, fighting for rebound) was the Warriors' first pick in the 1975 draft.

UCLA forward Kevon Looney, 19, is the Warriors' first pick in the 2015 draft.

What the NBA Draft Was Like 40 Years Ago by Nick Curran

In 1975 the underdog Golden State Warriors were basking in the afterglow of their four-game sweep of the Washington Bullets in the NBA Finals. Then their attention turned to the NBA college draft to strengthen their bench for the future. The Warriors were drafting 14th in the first round.

Times were different then. There was no live TV or radio, and of course, no Internet coverage. No players came to New York City to become instant celebrities. There was no stage to walk across to shake hands with Commissioner Larry O'Brien. There was no earlier draft lottery where ping pong balls determined a team's fate. 

The draft had been conducted since 1970 with a simple conference call. All teams were hooked up. Their general managers and coaches were in their home offices and the media could listen in. 

My job as the league's director of public relations was to lead the conference call by announcing the team name before each pick and wait for the recognizable voice of the general manager, coach or, sometimes, owner to name the player drafted. Then I would repeat the player's name, college, position, height and weight. Prior to the draft, team personnel who scouted college games across America gave me lists of players. I made a master list to use during the call.

When their turn came in the first round, the Warriors drafted Joe "Jellybean" Bryant, a 6-foot-9, 185-pound forward from LaSalle University. But before the 1975-76 season opened, Bryant was traded to his hometown Philadelphia 76ers. He played eight seasons with Philadelphia, then with the San Diego Clippers and Houston Rockets. He then continued his playing career in Italy and France before coming a coach.

Joe was never a star player or NBA head coach. But his son did quite well. You've heard of Kobe Bryant?

When we launched the conference call format in 1970 there were 19 rounds, compared to two rounds now. That spring 239 players were drafted, but only 56 ever played in the NBA. And sometimes the teams would pick poorly. It still happens. There is risk.

For example, that spring Philadelphia picked center Al Henry with the 12th pick in the first round. A Philadelphia newspaperman called Henry that day at the University of Wisconsin to get his reaction. The reporter told Henry he'd been picked No. 12. Since Henry had not heard from the team yet, he asked the writer if he meant 12th round. The writer said no, it was the 12th pick in the first round. Henry played just two seasons with Philadelphia, averaged four points and three rebounds a game, and was released in 1972.

Now the draft is so very different. Last Thursday evening's draft, according to metered market ratings from Nielsen, earned a 3.1 rating. That matched the 2014 draft rating as the highest audience ever since ESPN began live coverage. With the big names looming as free agents eligible to negotiate after July 1 and the Internet alive with trade rumors daily, this summer promises to be filled with NBA news. 

Eileen, are retired and live in Santa Barbara.

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Enough Already   by Andy Dolich

The never-ending story of Oakland's three professional sports teams leaving for greener venues has been going on longer than it would take to complete a mission to Alpha Centauri.

This ratatouille of relocation rationales has more ingredients than any sports stew in recent memory. East Bay team ownerships have made announcements, pronouncements, retrenchments and veiled threats about where their franchises will end up.  

Leagues have formed committees to research equitable solutions -- one ended with a Giant roadblock. Elected officials from Oakland and beyond opine on plans for future sites with crystal-clear strategic focus. Unfortunately those positions lack clarity, focus and long-term coherent strategy.

Over the past seven years the new venue compass for the three teams has pointed to Diridon Station in San Jose, Fremont with a side of Cisco Park, Coliseum City, Howard Terminal, dilapidated dockage in San Francisco, Victory Court in downtown Oakland, San Antonio, Carson, Inglewood, an AT&T parking lot and an abandoned Concord Naval Weapons Station. Bombs away!

This vacuum of definitive progress is driving Oakland sports fans away from the turnstiles (other than the Warriors') to see their sports shrinks in record numbers.

The world champion Warriors will be leasing at the Roaracle until their mission to Mission Bay clears all the legal hurdles that are being laid in their path.

The A's Moneyball express rolls on, but their San Jose ballpark quest is over. Committed A's fans take it personally when ownership complains about lack of support and financial distress while making more yearly profit than the Giants. (No, that's not a misprint)

The ongoing conversations between the teams and city leaders is like trying to diplomatically choose which one of your three children you love the most. One of the kids has a constant gripe. "Hey, landlord, I think you are not keeping up with repairs; the plumbing is screwed up; I don't like the Silver and Black neighbors sharing my turf, but I'd like a year-to-year lease under my own terms and conditions. We cool?" I wish someone in a leadership position would respond, "No, we are not cool!"

Oakland is a gritty yet highly competitive city, with suburbs, exurbs and even faraway counties with fans and businesses that will support a coherent stay-at-home team strategy led by a committed group of leaders who understand that the desolation that was San Francisco's China Basin can be replicated at 66th Avenue in Oakland. We don't need stadiums with coves, arenas that exude je ne sais quoi. Just give the fans of these three great Oakland franchises the chance to show the loyalty that is deeply ingrained in their DNA.

AT&T Park is a shining and feasible example of what civic teamwork is all about. The team ownership, elected officials and business leadership built a perfect ballpark for San Francisco. The magnificent and efficient transportation network that exists at the Coliseum site could never be built today unless the city, county and state were willing to drop several billion dollars. The Coliseum swap meet of today can be the recreation, research and residential renaissance of tomorrow. The Bay Area boomtown will benefit Oakland from the vision of Gov. Jerry Brown, who as Oakland mayor saw that affordable places to live were part of Oakland's future.

As a fan I say:

Enough already with San Jose. The A's aren't moving there.

Enough already with Carson and Inglewood. You went south once, and how did that work out for you?

Enough already with a Black Hole of a Raiders stadium plans that keeps getting deeper with no strategy.

Enough already on we need to move to San Francisco to be cooler than we already are and win an NBA championship. Hey, we just won in Oakland with the NBA MVP.

Enough already with Floyd Kephart, secret investors and no binding deals with the Raiders and NFL to finance or build anything.

Enough already with Lew Wolff refusing to work on a networked solution including the Raiders and A's building new homes on the Coliseum site.

Enough already with Coliseum City. We already have one and it is called Oakland and has three proud franchises playing on the same block. No other city in America can claim that

Millions of fans of the three teams have had enough already and would like to see the teamwork exemplified on the playing field by their favorite athletes translate to the negotiating table.

Andy Dolich has worked as an executive in all four major sports leagues, including the Oakland A's, Golden State Warriors and San Francisco 49ers. He is the managing director and head of U.S. sports practice for Odgers Berndstson, the UK's leading executive search firm, and director of career development for the University of San Francisco's online master's program in the business of

collegiate athletics.

Participant tees off at the third hole, par 5. Photo: CFGA staff.

The 2014 Northern California Open Championship. Photo: CFGA staff.

Is It Soccer or Is It Golf? by Shelia Young

Footgolf is golf with a soccer twist. It is also an unconventional way to teach others, using a regular golf course which has been modified to accommodate the soccer ball. Get a firsthand view at the nine-hole Marina course at Monarch Bay in San Leandro. Footgolf runs alongside the regular nine holes of standard golf. It appears to be garnering lots of play.

But what the heck is footgolf anyway? It's the perfect blend of soccer and golf, the most elite game in the world combined with the most popular sport in the world. The PGA has appointed a task force that is promoting this game as a way of attracting and spreading conventional golf among the thousands of soccer fans and players.

The United States Footgolf Association is helping as well by providing over 30 tournaments across the country, including the first U.S. national championships in Dallas on the weekend of Oct. 3. At the same time, Dallas will boast the first-ever Footgolf National Convention in the world. It will be the largest gathering of footgolf operators, owners, superintendents and players sharing best practices and information. The main goal is to create the structure to facilitate and promote footgolf in the U.S.

Rules are similar. Footwear includes indoor soccer or turf soccer shoes, but no cleats. Team members wear argyle knee-high socks, shorts and polo and a flat hat. The game encourages etiquette: no running on the course, being respectful of all golfers, not driving carts on green, using balls that are easy to identify, hitting the ball from behind the markers, and going in order of the person who scored the lowest on the last hole. The hole on the green itself is 21 inches across and accommodates any normal-size soccer ball chosen. And there are penalties. Players may not use the sole of the foot; instead they use the inside of the foot or their toes.

I recently met Tighe O'Sullivan, the sporting director of the California Footgolf Association, along with a number of local players as they were finishing a game at San Leandro. O'Sullivan is also associated with Pro-Am Beach Soccer, similar to regular soccer but not held on a grassy field. He was on his way to Bali and Singapore to promote these sports and raise money for disabled athletes.

O'Sullivan said his involvement in footgolf started in 2012 at the second-ever event in Las Vegas. It was less than a year after the sport's introduction in 2011. Las Vegas was the second course built nationally. Now there are over 300 courses in 43 states, with thousands of players and many more courses on the way throughout the country.

It seems to have captured the imagination of today's youth. There are already World Cup games -- the first was held in Budapest, Hungary, in 2012. Now dedicated to promote and expand the new sport, countries around the world are organizing to compete nationally and internationally. There are more than 40 nations that have governing bodies promoting the game.

O'Sullivan was raised in the Bay Area and has lived in San Francisco since 2008. "I played golf growing up," O'Sullivan says, "and I played soccer all my life. I was just better at soccer." He is on the board of directors of the United States Footgolf Association with his partner, J. Ramon Estevez; Ted Bishop, the 38th president of the PGA; and some other longtime sports professionals working together to grow the sport.

O'Sullivan says that while the average age of players is mid-to-late 20s, membership numbers change monthly. Recently, a local Boy Scout troop played at San Leandro's Monarch Bay. "It's an amazing opportunity for kids to really concentrate on their individual skills and technique," O'Sullivan said.

The Marina course has averaged around 25 players a day on the weekends; that number should increase over the summer. Courses in the South Bay (Pruneridge GC, Rancho Del Pueblo and Santa Teresa) have also reported increased use. Tournaments have averaged over 100 players or more. The CFGA hopes to see this game played in the Olympics. For now, the association is happy to see footgolf take hold in the Bay Area, with more young people joining every day.

"Footgolf is 99 percent golf, minus the equipment."

--Tighe O'Sulllivan, sporting director, California Footgolf Association

Addendum -- The Inaugural U.S. Makers Golf and Footgolf Tournament, to be held at the Monarch Bay Golf Club on Sept. 25, is hosted by the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce and the city of San Leandro. Sponsorships are available. Contact Emily@sanleandrochamber.com.

Shelia Young has played golf for 40 years and previously hosted her own Mayor's Cup Pro-Am Tournament while serving as mayor of San Leandro. She is currently an elected member of a Special District in Alameda County. Write sheliay@comcast.net or call (510) 507-3041.

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What do all these illustrious names have in common?

Michael Altfest, Steve Baker, James Brandt, Paul Brekke-Miesner, Robinson Brown, Walter Champion, Harvey Cohen, Isaac Cronin, Eileen Curran, Nick Curran, Glenn Dickey, Andy Dolich, Jeff Elefante, Pete Elman, Leland Faust, Nancy Finley and Chris De Benedetti, Jim Fitzpatrick, Rob Flammia, Daniel Geary, Andre Johnson, Kenny Karst, Ira Klein, Richard Lupoff, Bruce Macgowan, Patric Mayers, Ross McKean, Robert Moselle, Dave Newhouse, John Ourand, Howard Pearlstein, Rudi Petschek, Laurel Poeton, Phil Schaaf, Jonathan Siegel,

Tom Stern, Shelia Young

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