He asked people to call in for a hypothetical scenario where you could go back in time to change ONE THING the Blazers have done in the past, hopefully to change the future fortunes of the team. I turned the radio off before I could hear some ideas, but the concept stuck in my head for a while and this is what I came up with: I would go back to the 1984 draft, right after the coin flip which the Blazers lost the #1 pick to Houston. I would offer Houston whatever they wanted to swap places. Probably a deal including Wayne Cooper, Jim Paxson (then an All-Star), and a future first. I would then draft Hakeem Olajuwon, giving Ramsay the center that he needed for his system, and a young, emerging Clyde Drexler who wouldn't have to play behind Paxson. The Kiki Vandeweigh trade would have never happened. The starters for the Blazers in 1984 would look as such: PG: Fat Lever SG: Clyde Drexler SF: Kenny Carr/Calvin Natt PF: Mychal Thompson C: Hakeem Olajuwon That starting lineup competes with the Lakers for the next 10 years and wins at least 2 titles. Houston drafts Michael Jordan and goes a completely different direction with Ralph Sampson, and Chicago drafts Sam Bowie and they, well, go nowhere. What say you?
Wow, that's a tough question. Calling heads is a good one Drafting Jordan over Bowie would be another Durant over Oden Keeping Moses Malone Drafting Larry Bird over Mychal Thompson Drafting Bob McAdoo over Larue Martin I guess I would simply go with calling heads. Jordan over Bowie would have wona lot of titles with him and Clyde, but would they have been happy coexisting? Hakeem and Clyde would have won a lot of titles as well
I would go back to the year 2000... I would shoot the refs and send a letter to Stern that if he calls another fix, hes dead too on that called game 7 of the WCFs. That one loss sent us into a nose dive into the Firing of Whitsett and trading of Jerm O'Neal. We would have a guaranteed championship and possible a couple more.
The reason I didn't change the coin flip call was that, for the future development of Drexler, Jim Paxson had to be gotten out of the way. Ramsay NEVER played rookies or young players when he had older, established players in front of them on the depth chart. So you basically swap Paxson for Drexler, and Cooper for Olajuwon. The Blazers would've come out ahead big time on that deal.
I took the chance of Houston not taking that trade out of the equation. Then simply trade Paxson and his all star self for a mid first the following year and selected Karl Malone, or even a late first and selected AC Green Porter, Drexler, Kersey, Malone, Hakeem hahaha. Suck it NBA
If I could go back in time, I'd too address the 1984 draft, but I'd tell whoever made the coin flip call for the Blazers to say "heads" instead of "tails", instead of offering up some big trade after the coin flip. Crazy thing about that is Houston likely would have taken Jordan, and Chicago would have had Bowie.
I'd go back to Game 7 2000 WCF and tell Dunleavy to get out on Brian Shaw in the closing seconds of the third quarter, do not let him hit that 3. And take as many timeouts possible in the fourth to prevent any momentum swings, and somehow get the Blazers to score 1 or 2 more FGs to not let it spiral out of control.
I'd have someone hover over Oden's couch like a mother hen, helping him up every time. Same for Przybilla's bathtub.
Hmmm, this is a really, really hard one. I probably would've asked my parents to step off the boat and land in OKC instead of Salem, OR. Then I'd rot there for a decade or three with nothing to do and my thumb up my ass until the Sonics brought KD to my home city. Then I would remove my thumb from ass and shit my pants.
I would bring Sabonis over young and healthy. The world's best center playing with Drexler, Porter, Kersey, Buck Williams et al, and a very serviceable bench of Duckworth & Cliffy with Danny Young/Danny Ainge. Who on the NBA at that time could have beaten that team consistently? The advantage of my fantasy is there aren't what ifs. What if Jordan and Drexler could not coexist. What if Hakeem hated it in Portland. What if the Blazers beat the Lakers in 2000 but lost to the Pacers; remember, they were 0-2 vs. Indiana that year. What if SlyPokerDog turned out to be a crummy owner. But we know Sabas was OK in Portland. Damn, what a fucking great team the 1990-1993 Blazers with a young Sabonis.
If Sly hasn't gone bankrupt working the night shift at Shari's, I imagine he'd have done just fine with $40 billion in the bank.
