The Draft


Michael Jordan declared for the draft after his junior season, in the same class as hall of famer Hakeem Olajuwan, and Same Bowie who at the time were both projected to be the next "legends in the making" as well, Michael Jordan was just another average name in the Draft. He was selected 3rd Overall by the Chicago Bulls, the team where he would become a star, Hakeem was selected first by the Houston Rockets, Bowie who was battling injury's at the time was picked second by the Portland trail blazers.

 

Sam Bowie, a big name out of the University of Kentucky, was still picked second after fighting injurys his sophomore, junior, and senior year. Portland told Bowie he would get the 2nd pick in the draft if he passed their physical set a week before the draft. Bowie had broke his tibulla just before his sophmore season at Kentucky, the doctors casted it up for 6 months to heal and and when they took it off they found bowie had a rare disease that caused his body to make very little natural calcium, the cast had not healed him at all, in resuly it caused him to sit out his junior and senior season as well. When he came back and declared for the draft, known for his oustanding freshman year he was knowhere near 100%, but he didn't tell that to Portland. He fought threw the pain of a physical because he knew his career would be over if he didn't, and he passed. Portland was "a small city looking for a big man."  In the ESPN documentary on Sam's career he admited that the physical was very painful to him but he said "if what i did was lieing, if what i did was wrong, at the end of the day when your family has needs, i did what anyone would of done."  They even said that Michael didnt even get a look after he passed that physical.

This is particularly interesting to me because Sam Bowie rebroke his tibulla late in his rookie year for the Trail Blazers, if he didnt lie about his readiness to play, then Michael would of never went to the Bulls, one player completely changed the history of the sport of basketball simply by lieing about a physical. Who knows what would of happened if Bowie wouldn't of went to Portland, what would of happened to what people now call the greatest basketball dynasty in hisory, the Chicago Bulls.. What about Michael? do you think he still would of been considered the "best basketball player ever" if he went to Portland? The fact is that Michael was happier than ever when dreafted by the Bulls putting up 30 point games, 40 point games over and over and in reality all  Portland could do is watch. One of my favorite quotes from Jordan was when he won Rookie of the year and in his acceptance speech he thanked Portland for "Not picking him". His rookie year was also the year he had 42 points alone against Portland where "The shrug" became a peice of basketball history, symbolizing that Portland missed their chance.

The history of basketball was changed by one players lie, and to me that is amazing,  but for michael it was the best thing that had ever happened to him, it led him to start the next chapter in his life.  The greatest dynasty in Basketball history: The Chicago Bulls.