Blazers would have selected Barkley instead of Jordan

Not a bad choice; Barkley in his prime instead of Buck would have been pretty powerful.

 

Shit....... the 1984 version of S2 would have gone NUTZ had we drafted that fat hillbilly!

 

Portland could have had Barkley though a trade and they should have done it. Even if it ment trading fan favorite Jerome Kersey but just as today they are to chicken shit to try something like that. Thats why we have got to play this damn waiting game of building though the draft and free agents.

 

OK I remember it like yesterday as I was in my 20's and had numerous discussions about it with sports fans. Olajuwon was the prize and there was no one else close in most people's mind.

Bowie was so talented it was hard to pass up. He could do everything when healthy. Great shot blocker and passer in particular.

Jordan was considered a all around solid player. An all star for sure, but no way a super star. Although once the Olympics started there was a little bit of uneasiness starting to form in my stomach. Then in preseason it was a full blown "Oh Fuck"

But the Round mound of rebound? No way was he considered reliable. Hell he couldn't even make the Olympic team when it was all college players.

NC guys were like UCLA players. (other than Walton and Alcindor) They just didn't stand out because of the team game they played. They had so much talent on that team that you never saw the huge games from any of them.

Good players still fall though the cracks.......look at Dwade and Paul Pierce. We need to get lucky.

 

I would still take that in a heart beat. Barkley was a bad ass.

 

We need to get lucky? I'd say it looks like Lillard was a pretty damn good pick.

 

The rotund one would have developed knee problems here. He was a talker, so the Oregonian would have driven him out.

Speaking of the Prosecutorial Paper, notice Freeman's tone? He acts like the paper has done Bowie a favor for years by not raising mass hatred against him.

 

When I read this, for some reason the first thing that popped into my mind was that old religious joke about God saving someone

A big storm is coming and the weatherman urges everyone to get out of town. The religious man says, "I'm not worried, God will save me".
The morning of the storm, the police go through the neighborhood urging everyone to evacuate. The man says "I'm not worried, God will save me".
The storm drains back up and there is an inch of water standing in the street. A fire truck comes by to pick up the man. He tells them "Don't worry, God will save me."
The water rises another foot. A National Guard truck comes by to rescue the man. He tells them "Don't worry, God will save me."
The water rises some more. The man is forced up to his roof. A boat comes by to rescue the man. He tells them "Don't worry, God will save me."
The water rises higher. The man is forced up to the very top of his roof. A helicopter comes to rescue the man. He shouts up at them "Don't worry, God will save me."
The water rises above his house, and the man drowns.
When he gets up to heaven he says to God "I've been your faithful servant ever since I was a boy! Why didn't you save me?"
God replies "First I sent you a fire truck, then the national guard, then a boat, and then a helicopter. What more do you want from me!!??"


Like the man in the joke, Portland has been given opportunities over and over to save itself, and Bob, McAdoo, Moses Malone, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Kevin Durant are metaphors for the weatherman, the police, the fire truck, the National Guard, a boat and the helicopter.

 

Me too. I wanted the Blazers to call heads, they called tails. I wanted them to draft Barkley, they drafted Bowie. I want Stella Artois, I get Old Milwaukee. Story of my life.

 

Yeah there may be a few teams who will regret not taking Lillard ahead of us. Let me re-phrase it, we need to get lucky again this year.

 

I hate you because this made too much sense! I wish we had management that had eyes on the future.

 

As of now at least. Lets hope the luck stays that way!

 

Stockton didn't make that Olympic team either. The difference is Stockton REALLY wanted to make the team and Barkely didn't. If fact, Barkley deliberately sabotaged himself to keep from making the team.

Bobby Knight was the head coach and he invited what he considered the top 76 college players in the country to attend a two week tryout for the team. Since this was right before the draft, every NBA team sent their scouts and GMs to watch the first week of the tryouts. This was in the days before pre-draft camps, combines, etc. So, it was an unprecedented opportunity for NBA teams to watch the players they were considering drafting going head-to-head. That first week, Barkley absolutely killed it. He outplayed everyone else there, including Jordan.

But, Barkley's goal was not to make the Olympic team. You don't get paid to play in the Olympics and he considered that a waste of his time. His goal was to get drafted high enough to get a multi-million dollar contract. Barkley came from a very poor background, and for him basketball was his ticket out of poverty. So, he dominated week one, when the NBA scouts and GMs were watching, then totally dogged it during week two and deliberately defied Bobby Knight's authority until Knight had had enough and sent him home in disgust.

Barkley didn't make that Olympic team, but he could have, easily - if he had wanted to.

BNM

 

BTW, here's a GREAT link that lists all the players who tried out for that 1984 Olympic team, who made it to week two (20 finalists) and who eventually made the roster.

It shows that both Barkley and Stockton made the top 20, but were cut and didn't make the final roster.

Another player who made the top 20, but not the final roster was Terry Porter.

Stockton got screwed. He outplayed Steve Alford, but since Alford was Bobby Knight's prize recruit at Indiana, Knight took him over Stockton.

BNM

 

Also, Karl Malone couldn't make that 184 Olympic tam. He didn't even make the top 20.

BNM

 

Do you have a link to that story? That isn't how it was reported at the time. It was that Barkley's body didn't fit the conventional mold and Knight would have had to change his system to accomodate him.

 

Exactly, that is why I said un-reliable as opposed to saying he was considered un-talented.

The other reason was his weight. People were concerned that he would balloon up even more once he got paid. And at his height that would be disastrous. He could jump out of the gym with the weight he had, but would it take a toll on his knees? Most young players gain weight in the pros not lose it. He was an exception. He was not considered a can't miss prospect at the time because of these questions.

The fact he out played everyone at the Olympic trials was a moot point as the draft was already over. But yeah he proved everyone wrong.

 

No link, but it's from the book "Tip-Off: How the 1984 NBA Draft Changed Basketball Forever".

BNM

 

Not sure where you're getting your information, but you are wrong. Barkley and Stockton were part of the final group of players cut on May 13, 1984. The 1984 NBA draft was held on June 19, 1984.

BNM