Revisiting the 1984 NBA Draft

Shem · Post #1 » by **Shem** » Tue Dec 20, 2022 5:11 pm

Let's revisit the 1984 draft where everyone remembers how the Blazers passed up Michael Jordan for Sam Bowie because there is so much most people don't know about before the draft happened.

What people should also talk about is how the Indiana Pacers and the Houston Rockets were even stupider. But wait, how is drafting Olajuwon make Houston stupid you may ask? Are you going to argue that they should have taken Jordan so that Portland could have drafted Olajuwon? You maybe thinking how that doesn't make Houston stupid. No, that's not the argument. I'll get to that later.

In 1981, the Indiana Pacers traded their future 1984 1st round pick to Portland for Tom Owens. Owens at the time was a career 11 point-per-game scorer in his 30's and is about to play his last NBA season after that trade.

So that pick that 1st round pick that Portland passed up Jordan for Bowie wasn't originally theirs. It was the Pacers who originally missed out on the Jordan sweepstakes for Tom Owens and nobody ever brings that up.

As we all know that Portland was desperate for a dominate NBA center. The Blazers had hoped that Patrick Ewing was going to enter the NBA draft after his junior year like Jordan did and Ewing considered it. Portland for sure was hoping for that since they lost the coin flip to pick 1st to Houston. But he elected to stay in college and play his senior year. Back then that was very common. But Ewing's decision to go back to Georgetown cost Portland a chance at him.

But let's visit how the Houston Rockets really screwed up having a major dynasty that nobody talks about. After Ewing decided to play his senior year, Portland foolishly offered the 2nd pick of the '84 draft and Clyde Drexler to Houston for Ralph Sampson. Houston even more foolishly passes up this offer. Had the Rockets accepted Portland's desperate trade offer, they could have gotten Drexler, drafted Olajuwon and Jordan as the 1st and 2nd picks of the draft.

Imagine had Houston had Olajuwon, Jordan and Drexler in the same lineup? And both Jordan and Olajuwon would have been rookies together with Drexler entering his 2nd season. They could have grown together and took the NBA by storm pretty quickly and won countless championships. And yet nobody talks about that.

ChettheJet · Post #2 » by **ChettheJet** » Mon Jan 9, 2023 8:13 pm

You're probably the only Blazer fan who wants to revisit that draft.

Your call is flawed because the Pacers made their trade for Owens long before, the IndyStar newspaper

In fairness to Pacers executive Dick Vertlieb and coach Jack McKinney, Jordan had yet to play a single minute of college basketball when the deal was made on June 5, 1981.

So the Blazers had that pick fermenting in their basket for a long time, they could have decided to trade it in those years prior to the 84 draft and someone else would have made their move.

It's not like HOU needed to gamble on moving Sampson to get Drexler, and another pick. They sadly had earned the 1st pick in the draft 2 straight years maybe they just wanted to take a breath and see some improvement for a change. They missed out on signing Moses Malone as FA when PHIL matched their offer. So in the wide wide world of what if's would they have tken Olajuwon if they had gotten Moses? Ralph was their leading scorer over Olajuwon, they had Rodney McCray they had a veteran team and may have thought let's run a year with these 2 kids and see who we ship out after the season.

Case2012 · Post #3 » by **Case2012** » Tue Jan 10, 2023 1:47 am

Rather not

Post #4 » by **DaVoiceMaster** » Tue Jan 10, 2023 6:37 am

So many what it's 40 years later. What if Oden and Roy stayed healthy. What if Portland still made the trade to acquire the #6 pick in the 2012 draft. What if Ariza didn't ruin Rudy Fernandez's career.

2014-15 Roster
Lillard / Mo Williams
Roy / Matthew's/ CJ
Batum / Barton
Aldridge / Robinson
Oden / Leonard

That would have been an amazing what if.

Norm2953 · Post #5 » by **Norm2953** » Tue Jan 10, 2023 6:53 am

I remember that day very well.

Looking back at that day, Portland gambled the second pick of the draft on a guy who had missed so
much time on the court. Teams today would not take such risks and would do everything possible to
mitigate the gamble. Likely Portland should have traded down for that was a solid draft with Jordan,
Barkley, Perkins, Alvin Robertson, Otis Thorpe and Kevin Willis who all had solid, long NBA careers.