During a Philadelphia radio interview with 97.5 The Fanatic on Wednesday, Larry Brown remembered that the Philadelphia 76ers actually ranked Paul Pierce the No. 2 prospect in 1998.
But the 76ers passed on Pierce and instead selected Larry Hughes.
Pierce and Allen Iverson could have formed a remarkable scoring tandem.
"We took Larry Hughes because (with the eighth pick) because we thought we had a need," he said. "But the reason we took Larry is I promised him when we interviewed him -- we knew we were getting the eighth pick -- I promised him if he was there at (No.) 8 we would take him."
The ill-advised promise changed Brown's draft strategy.
"I always think you should take the very best player," he said. "Whatever we wrote on the board, we used to write by position during the draft the best players, then we would write needs, and then we would write the best players period. And I always used to tell our staff, we've gotta go for the best player period and not even think about our needs, unless they were very, very close."