The "we didn't pick Jordan because we had Clyde" doesn't even make sense in the context of the time. We drafted Clyde when we already had an all-star playing the 2, Jim Paxson. He was second-team all-NBA in 1984. We could have kept him, played Clyde at the 3 and brought Kersey off the bench. We had no issues trading Paxson a couple of years later; Paxson was the Blazers' all-time leading scorer at the time. We traded him for Jerry Sichting.
What does make sense is that the Trail Blazers' management's #1 goal was to win a championship. Forgetting about the injury issue for a moment, if you think you are one player away from being a contender, and that one player is Sam Bowie and not Michael Jordan, then you take Sam Bowie. I am guessing Blazer management had a hard time seeing the road to a championship with Michael Jordan compared to Sam Bowie. Jordan wasn't even the Blazers' 3rd choice either. They would have taken Charles Barkley.
If we had taken Barkley, or maybe even if we had gone for the later rumored trade I think we have a very good shot at the chip.
are you talking about the Kersey + Robinson for Barkley trade that Portland turned down? yeah, don't re-write the 1984 draft, but make that trade and also convince Sabonis to come over immediately: Porter Drexler Barkley Buck Sabonis how many rings for that team?
The story I've always heard was that our draft board was #1 Hakeem, #2 Barkley. Then Dr Jack got involved and demanded a center. I know everyone loved him as a coach, but there were some baboon-butt-ugly roster decisions during his tenure - and at least 3 of them had his fingerprints all over them.
I meant both taking him over Bowie and then also that the later trade would have been amazing. Especially since Clyde destroyed Cliff's playoff game with the worst unnecessarily induced yips in history with that pass under the hoop when he should have just dunked it on LA. Ugh that breakaway would have almost certainly turned that game. I think we win it. Of course then you have Jordan for the first time, but maybe he was beatable that first Finals before he tasted victory...maybe.
Stu Inman told Bobby Knight that they already had Drexler & needed a center, and Bobby Knight said, "play Jordan at center".
yeah, I can't recall hearing about the Ramsey involvement at the time, but it's entirely possible. It was the age of big, rim-protecting C's and Ramsey had won a championship with one a minor irony is at the time the Blazers had Mychal Thompson at C. He was actually pretty good. He'd just averaged 16 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists that season. If you had seen him play he sure looked like the kind of big who would thrive in the modern NBA. He was very mobile; he just wasn't a dominant force in the paint
Probably so, but Adelman taking his starters out in Game 1, thinking they had it in the bag, got the Blazers off to a bad start and they never recovered. That was maybe the biggest fail in franchise history . The Blazers had the best record, and Best team IMO. And did well against Chicago that year, winning both games. If's & Buts....
yeah, that was so damn frustrating. I remember it well all season long Adelman had been getting criticized for his 'platoon' substitution pattern. He stuck to it stubbornly. Finally, he abandoned that and went with a more fluid rotation and the result was a 16 game winning streak until he half rested the starters in the final game. And then went 8-3 in the first two playoff series. So, if you discard the regular season final, the Blazers had a 24-3 record after shit-canning the platoon system. so what does Adelman do in game 1 against the Lakers? If you guessed he went back to the platoon system yo win the prize. He didn't in the 1st half bu he did at the beginning of the 4th Q....and it was a fucking disaster. Blazers started the 4th Q with a 12 point lead, the bench lost it immediately, and Portland gets outscored 31-14 in the 4th Q, lost game 1 and HCA, and never recovered (I looked it up). I never really forgave Adelman for that inexcusable blunder
Thompson was at least a solid player for the Blazers. Averaged at least 17 ppg three times and averaged 20 ppg and a double-double in 1982. Shot 50% from the field. We ended up trading him for Steve Johnson. I seem to recall the feeling that he was too laid back. He was a pretty good passer, too, IIRC.
I have always enjoyed this little article on that draft. https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/side-coin-article-1.252920