Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury, Kobe Bryant, Jermaine O’Neal. Ray Allen, Peja Stojakovic, Antoine Walker, Steve Nash, Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

That 1996 NBA Draft class stands out as arguably the most talented group to emerge over the past twenty years. An incredible one-third of the first round draftees went on to become full-fledged All-Stars; several rose to be the best at their individual positions.

Collectively, they came in with the highest expectations and delivered.

The Harvard men’s crew witnessed something of its own version of the ’96 NBA Draft three years ago. With the requisite impressive statistics, awards, prospects and potential, the heavyweight recruits of the year 2000 entered Cambridge as one of the most highly-touted classes in the storied history of the Harvard program.

Now, those freshmen are seniors, members of the Class of 2004.

And for three years, they have done nothing but deliver.

Great Expectations

Before they had even stepped foot in Harvard Yard, the men’s heavies of the Class of 2004 were members of the United States junior national team, championship winners, and distinguished rowers on the international level.

If there was one common thread amongst the recruits, to be sure, it was winning.

“Coming in, [we felt] sort of an air that we were there to change the program, to take it to a new level,” Justin Webb said. “As freshmen, right from the beginning, we were really fired up to bring the Harvard program to the very forefront.”

Despite all the pre-college distinctions, the freshmen did not simply pick up where they left off. Immediately, they felt a need to improve and get better. The biggest motivating factor for them was competition, especially amongst themselves and in practice.

“If you have that many kids from the junior national team in one class, they’re all trying into get into [the first freshman] eight-seat boat, so there’s pressure, yeah,” said coxswain Jesse Oberst, the ninth member of that boat. “And all that gets pushed into racing, into readying yourself, into becoming better.”

In fact, like all incoming Harvard students, the recruits felt the need to move beyond high school and establish themselves in Cambridge.

“I think we were all a bit cautious about feeling a sense of entitlement,” Cameron Winklevoss said. “We all had yet to prove ourselves on the college level. We were just a class with a lot of potential [and] needed to focus ourselves on the pressure to win, not on the pressure from expectations.”

Fortunately for Harvard, it was a pressure the rowers relished without question. They may have been distinguished, but the freshmen handled practices with intensity and embarked on preparing themselves for the seasons ahead.