How Different the NBA Would Be If Blazers Drafted Jordan

If Portland would have drafted Jordan instead of Bowie, there would still be an NBA team in Seattle and quite possibly still one in Vancouver BC, too. With Jordan in Portland, the Pacific NW would have been THE hot bed of NBA basketball from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. Imagine the rivalry between the Jordan/Drexler Blazers and the Payton/Kemp Sonics. Both teams would have been able to attract top free agents and players in sign-and-trades, that were easier back then than they are today. And, Seattle would have gotten the new stadium needed keep the Sonics in Seattle and the team would have never been sold to those lying hicks from Cow Town.

With two great teams in the NW division, and actually located in the PNW, there may have also been enough of a trickle down effect to keep the Grizzlies in Vancouver. Attendance in Vancouver was never an issue. As bad as the Grizzlies were back then, they drew bigger crowds in Vancouver than the did for their first several years in Memphis. The issue was finding a local ownership group that was committed to keeping them in Vancouver. With two other teams in the region making huge profits off their local NBA teams, it may have been enough to lure a group of local businessmen to buy the Grizzlies and keep them in Vancouver. Jordan in Portland with Nike in Beaverton would have been a huge marketing juggernaut for the city as well as the entire region.

Jordan in Portland would have been the messiah that saved NBA basketball in the Pacific Northwest.

BNM

 

Or Jordan would have demanded a trade to a bigger market

 

The answer to the actual questin is who knows?

Butterfly effect and all that

 

You can't answer a question with a question..

Or can you?

 

I don't know, I think you can answer a question with a question. Does anyone question that?

 

I think the most obvious difference is that Denny would have become a Blazer fan much sooner if Jordan had played here.

 

I doubt it. Jordan got rich off his national endorsements: Gatorade, Coke, Hanes, Chevy, McDonalds and of course, the biggest of them all - Nike, located right here in little ole Beaverton, OR. It was Nike and the Air Jordan line of shoes and clothing that transformed Michael Jordan from an athlete into a brand. He STILL makes over $100 million per year off his Nike deal. Small market, large market, it would not have mattered, As long as he was winning scoring titles, MVPs, dunk contests and eventually championships, he was going to be the richest athlete in the history of the world. No matter where he played, his local endorsement deals would have always been small peanuts compared to his national deals.

It was much less common for star athletes to demand trades back then. Most remained loyal to the teams that drafted them. In Jordan's case, with all his national endorsements, there was no incentive to demand a trade to a larger market. And, in this case, there would have been a big incentive to stay in Portland - winning. Jordan was, perhaps, the most competitive athlete in the history of team sports. He always played to win and drove his teammates to do the same. Outside of Jordan himself, those early Bulls teams were pretty devoid of talent. The Bulls didn't draft Pippen until Jordan's 4th year in the league - which is also the first time Michael advanced past the first round of the playoffs. In Chicago, Jordan had to wait 4 years until he was paired with another Dream Teamer and one of the 50 Greatest Players of all time. In Portland, he had one ready and waiting for him to start his rookie year. With his length and athleticism, Clyde could have easily played small forward next to Jordan at the 2. The Bulls didn't make it to the finals until 1990-91 - Jordan's 7th year in the league. The Blazers made the finals a year sooner - without Jordan. With him they would have made it even sooner. Portland won 48 games and were the 3 seed in the Western Conference playoffs the year before Jordan was drafted. The Bulls won 27 games and missed the playoffs. The Blazers minus Bowie simply had a lot more talent than the Bulls minus Jordan. Plug Jordan into that Blazers roster and he would have won more and would have won sooner. And, for Michael Jordan, winning was always what mattered most.

BNM

 

Great analysis!

 

What if we had kept Fat Lever, drafted Jordan, had Clyde at SF, drafted Bird instead of Mychal Thompson and kept Moses because of Walton's injury history!! Oh my!

 

We would have had the original Dream Team.

BNM