Whenever I read about the 1984 NBA Draft, I get annoyed at how a big deal is made about how Portland made a mistake in passing up Michael Jordan. Only in hindsight does one realize the shouldas, wouldas, and couldas. It's 20/20, right? Yet isn’t the basis for the draft on selecting players who will help your team? To add the missing pieces to a championship puzzle?
Remember does a team draft a player who plays a certain type of game when you already have one? Look at the New York Knicks of the 1980s, they drafted Mark Jackson and Rod Strickland in succession. It didn't work, right? One had to be traded and it was the latter. Ditto with Cleveland having Mark Price and Kevin Johnson. You want to go with Portland again? How about Drazen Petrovic who left because he couldn't find playing time with Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, and Danny Ainge in the lineup.
Michael Jordan had a suspect jumpshot in college which is why Indiana guard Dan Dakich gave him all the room to shoot against the Hoosiers in MJ's final college game. The Blazers already had an athletic guard with Drexler. Not everyone who is drafted number one, two, or three works out.
I believe that most media has raised to -- for lack of a better word at the moment -- "urban legend status" and in a most negative way Portland’s selection of Sam Bowie. I wrote several articles about that years ago debunking that. Here are three links:
The other day, I picked up Filip Bondy’s book Tip Off which is all about the 1984 NBA Draft and how it changed the NBA forever. It’s an interesting read for NBA fans.
And I still stand by what I wrote.
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