NBA teams can only win a championship if they have a great big-man. This notion used to be widely believed throughout the league without a doubt and teams would always do whatever they could to get a great big-man in order to compete for a title. For the most part this was true though, the great Celtics had Bill Russell, the Lakers had Kareem, the 76er's had Moses Malone, the Blazers had Bill Walton, championships seemed to have a direct correlation to All-star Center. This concept is usually the number one reason most people do not fault the Portland Trailblazers in 1984 for taking Sam Bowie, the big man from Kentucky, second overall in the draft over Michael Jordan. Obviously looking back upon it we can see that it was one of the most incredible missed opportunities in team sports history, but what can you do.
This brings up the question though, what if the Blazers did select Michael Jordan? Where would it have brought their franchise and would he have had as much success?
Well first of all drafting him wouldn't really have made the most sense, since in the 83'-84' season Portland was already grooming a rookie shooting guard/forward by the name of Clyde Drexler. If anything the drafting of Jordan could have very likely pushed back the development of Drexler more than anything. The starting shooting guard, Jim Paxson was a 20 point scorer and could play small forward. Also Michael Jordan was a much more capable and productive rookie than Drexler and would have pushed back his playing time. Though the common fan might drool over the thought of a Jordan, Drexler combination on the floor for the Blazers during the late 80's and early 90's, it was much more likely that Drexler would have been traded for a big man. Jordan would have basically been in the same type of situation he was in throughout his career in Chicago, though he would not have had Scottie Pippen.
So Jordan with the Blazers... 6 championships? 5 MVP awards? 10 Scoring titles? The championship total would have been likely to drop, though the MVP years and Scoring titles would have probably gone up since he would have been asked to do a lot more without the presence of another top 50 NBA player. I'm a statistics junkie as you may noticed through my other posts, so for Jordan could not resist playing some what could have been. I came up with a 33.2 ppg, 5.6 asts, 6.2 rbds, for his career. Number player of all-time still, oh yes...
This brings up the question though, what if the Blazers did select Michael Jordan? Where would it have brought their franchise and would he have had as much success?
Well first of all drafting him wouldn't really have made the most sense, since in the 83'-84' season Portland was already grooming a rookie shooting guard/forward by the name of Clyde Drexler. If anything the drafting of Jordan could have very likely pushed back the development of Drexler more than anything. The starting shooting guard, Jim Paxson was a 20 point scorer and could play small forward. Also Michael Jordan was a much more capable and productive rookie than Drexler and would have pushed back his playing time. Though the common fan might drool over the thought of a Jordan, Drexler combination on the floor for the Blazers during the late 80's and early 90's, it was much more likely that Drexler would have been traded for a big man. Jordan would have basically been in the same type of situation he was in throughout his career in Chicago, though he would not have had Scottie Pippen.
So Jordan with the Blazers... 6 championships? 5 MVP awards? 10 Scoring titles? The championship total would have been likely to drop, though the MVP years and Scoring titles would have probably gone up since he would have been asked to do a lot more without the presence of another top 50 NBA player. I'm a statistics junkie as you may noticed through my other posts, so for Jordan could not resist playing some what could have been. I came up with a 33.2 ppg, 5.6 asts, 6.2 rbds, for his career. Number player of all-time still, oh yes...
Image Courtesy of NBA.com
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