Nearsighted panic move

All-Star, and guard Dean Meminger, who showed some potential as a role player for the Knicks. Kauffman played one season before he injured a hip and never played again. Meminger played two seasons — looked mostly like a role player.

As for those college picks, the Hawks took Mike Sojourner at No. 10 overall in 1974. He played three seasons in the NBA, with each succeeding season becoming progressively worse. With the No. 1 overall pick in 1975, Hawks selected the great David Thompson, but all the excitement of that pick fizzled when Thompson signed with the Denver Nuggets of the ABA. (The Hawks held the No. 3 pick because of their own poor record, drafted Marvin Webster and watched him sign with the Nuggets, too.)

Second-round pick Bill Willoughby (1975) was a high school player from New Jersey who had a mediocre career. The 1976 second-round pick went to the Bucks as part of the Hawks’ punishment for signing Julius Erving a few years earlier. The Bucks chose Alex English, who along with Thompson and Maravich are in the Hall of Fame. None of the players who came to the Hawks played above mediocrity.

The Braves were in a tight division race with the Dodgers in late August 1983, trying to defend their National League West title. Then Los Angeles made a big trade for pitcher Rick Honeycutt, and Braves owner Ted Turner wanted his team to make a corresponding move. To satisfy the boss, the front office acquired Len Barker.

The chief cost to the Braves was outfielder Brett Butler. He was a fan favorite and prototypical leadoff hitter. Butler collected 2,375 hits in his career, something achieved by only 132 players. In the Atlanta era, only Chipper Jones has more hits while wearing a Braves uniform.

Alas, only 238 of Butler’s hits came before he was traded. The Barker trade was announced as three unidentified players going to the Indians at a later date, but the secret got out quickly. People in the know said that prospects Rick Behenna and Brook Jacoby were two of the three, and then came word that Butler was the third. Soon after, the Braves sent Behenna to the Indians, but intended to keep Butler and Jacoby until after the season. Then Turner talked.

In mid-September, Turner confirmed to Butler that he was part of the trade. Word of that conversation reached Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who was ready to send Butler directly to the Indians. Kuhn gave the Braves the option to pay a $25,000 fine and keep Butler, and they took it.

Barker pitched a perfect game in 1981, but his career was declining sharply by 1983. He pitched here through 1985 and was 10-20 for the Braves.

Meanwhile, the Braves finished three games behind the Dodgers in 1983. The Braves finished 12 behind the Padres the next season, and their slide continued at full speed into the abyss that defined their ’80s — and that daily hole at the top of the batting order didn’t help matters.

AJC FILE The Braves’ chief cost in a 1983 trade was outfielder Brett Butler, a fan favorite and prototypical leadoff hitter. In the Atlanta era, Chipper Jones is the only Brave with more hits than Butler’s career total of 2,375 (only 238 of those were with the Braves).

AJC FILE The Braves (out of contention at the time) picked up hard-throwing John Smoltz in 1987 because the Tigers needed Doyle Alexander to help win a division title.

AJC FILE When Pete Maravich went to the Jazz, the Hawks got plenty in return, but very little worked out.