Despite all his injuries, centre Sam Bowie actually played more games than Micheal Jordan in three seasons!
I thought Sam was the one hurt!
Well, it wasn't only because MJ got hurt. Truth is, that only happened in 1985/86. That was His Airness' and the unfortunate Bowie's second NBA campaign. Jordan had wowed 'em as a rookie the previous season. Bowie had shown plenty of promise. The problem, of course, was Sam's injuries.
The Portland Trailblazers had drafted Sam second, and the Chicago Bulls drafted Michael third. The never-ending story you hear is how this was one, if not the, worst draft pick of all-time. Hadn't there been warning signs at the collegiate level (Bowie missed his second and third seasons with injuries)?
But Sam had been good enough to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated in December of 1983, his senior year at the University of Kentucky. He played in all 34 games games as the 'Cats went 29-5. But his numbers in 1983/84 were off from his 1980/81 output. His points-per-game went from 17.4 to 10.5. Uh oh.
So the Portland Trailblazers took him, following Houston's pick of some chap who also played centre named Olajuwon first. Jordan was picked third by Chicago. Dallas picked Sam Perkins, MJ's teammate at North Carolina, fourth, and a chap named Barkley went fifth to Philadelphia.
That, alone, made the 1984 NBA draft memorable. But while Hakeem, MJ and Charles had great careers (And Perkins went on to a solid, 17-year NBA campaign of his own), the unfortunate Bowie lasted just parts of ten seasons and just 511 games in the bigs.
Mind you, there had been other big men cut down with injuries. Portland had drafted another flop named LaRue Martin some years earlier. Then they'd drafted Bill Walton. While Bill nabbed an MVP award and two NBA rings, he played just 468 games in the National Basketball Association.
Was Bowie another flop? Yes, in the minds of many. But it didn't start out that way.
The Trailblazers had Clyde Drexler and Jim Paxon in the backcourt already, so it didn't look like they needed Michael Jordan. Plus, they'd drafted another NBA man in 1984: Jerome Kersey! Jerome ended up like Sam Perkins, a solid 17-year NBA career.
The Portland Trailblazers beat the Kansas (Now Sacramento) Kings in the season opener of the 1984/85 NBA season. Final score? 140-116! Bowie only scored 4 points in 23 minutes, but held opposing centre LaSalle Thompson to just 4-16 from the floor. The backcourt of Drexler and Paxon combined for 45 points and 9 rebounds.
But we gotta talk about MJ, right?
MJ ended up playing all 82 games and averaging 28.2 points-per game for the Chicago Bulls. Compare that to Bowie playing 76 games and averaging just 10 points and 8.6 assists. Sam and MJ shared a spot on the All-Rookie team that year. Remember the game where Michael got 38 vs. Dr. J, Mosses Malone and Charles Barkley?
Jordan played just 12 games the following season. Bowie, too, was hurt (And it wouldn't be the last time, believe me). The difference was Sam played in 38 games, and improved his scoring output, albeit slightly. 11.8 PPG. Was it a step back for Portland? Chicago had lost in the first round to Milwaukee in 1985, while Portland actually lost in the Western Conference semis. The Trailblazers and Bulls lost in the first round in 1986, but MJ had made his dramatic return!
Jordan scored a playoff-record 63 points against the eventual-NBA Champion Boston Celtics in the second contest. But the reality was, it was merely a double-OT loss by Chicago. Boston went on to a sweep. So, it was still a little hard to call either Chicago or Portland the "winner" in the '84 draft at this point.
But then came Sam's injuries.
Jordan averaged better than 37 points in 1986/87. Bowie played well in the five games he appeared that season. Notice I said 5 games? That'd be all Sam appeared in a Portland jersey for the next two seasons. Five games into the next season, this happened!
So Sam missed the rest of 1986/87 (77 games), all of 1987/88 (82 games), then play in just twenty games in 1988/89. Meanwhile, MJ was MJ. There's no real reason to bring up his stats, they're devastating. In '88/89 alone, he was at 35 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, leading Chicago to within two games of their first NBA finals.
So Portland traded Bowie to New Jersey for Buck Williams and a 1st round pick, getting to the finals in 1989/90 and 1991/92. Detroit beat both Jordan's Bulls and Clyde Drexler's Trailblazers in the last two rounds in the 1990 playoffs. Guess who Portland lost to in '92? Chicago. Ah.
Drexler and MJ went to the Olympics that year, for good measure. Where was Sam? He was now on the New Jersey Nets, and not fairing that bad all things considered. Oddly, he was healthy, and putting some more-than-respectable numbers.
Bowie averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds in 68 games in '89/90. By '91/92, he was up to 15 points-a-game.
The big men were suddenly a dying breed in the NBA: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had left after 1989, Mosses Malone was on the slide! Left were Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing and newcomer David Robinson. On the horizon was a kid named Shaquille O'Neal! Another big man, Tim Duncan, arrived at the end of the 1990s!
Sam and MJ met up in 1991/92, of course.
But Bowie's best game of 1991/92 (Or in his entire career) came against the man drafted ahead of him in 1984: The Dream!
Sam dropped 34 points and 15 rebounds on Hakeem Olajuwon on boxing day in 1991. The Dream had just 17 points and 7 rebounds on his own.
Michael Jordan, feeling the competitive fire burning out, surprisingly retired from the game in 1993, right after throwing out the first pitch of game one of baseball's American League Championship Series (Chicago vs. Toronto). MJ must have liked what he saw then. He tried his hand at some minor league baseball in 1994. Sam was still around the NBA, however. He'd played a career-high 79 games in 1992/93, some of them against rookie Shaq.
Bowie played just 25 games the next year, now in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform. He then played one final season in 1994/95, appearing in 67 games, but averaging just 4.6 points-per-game. He announced his retirement in the fall.
MJ had decided to come back in '94/95, but not until March. After 17 regular seasons games, his Chicago Bulls were back in the playoffs where Shaq and company of Orlando ran 'em out of there. But quick as lightning, Chicago did what they'd done from 1990/91-1992/93, 3-peat!
Sam Bowie, although retired at this point, actually had a chance to be a part of that, if you can believe it. The Bulls, looking for more strength in the middle, had Sam come down and workout with the Bulls. He even got have dinner with one of MJ's bosses, coach Phil Jackson. But Sam choose not to stick around. He'd already successfully transitioned to another passion: Horse racing! So he missed out on the 1995/96 72-10 Chicago Bulls.
Jordan retired two more times, for good after the 2002/2003 season (Sadly, he couldn't get his new team, the Washington Wizards, to the playoffs his last two seasons). He'd certainly outlasted Bowie, and there is no comparison as far as the rings go. But wouldn't it have been neat for the two of them to play together for a season or two? Just to show how the 1984 NBA draft was still huge years after the fact?
References
Bondy, Filip. Tip-off: How The 1984 NBA Draft Changed Basketball Forever. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2007. Print.
Elderkin, Phil. “Rookie Sam Bowie No Smash Hit, But Blazers Like His Potential.” The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Nov. 1984, http://www.csmonitor.com/ 1984/1113/111304.html. Web (Magazine Archive). 20 Aug. 2018.
Friend, Tom. “Sam Bowie Doesn't Ask 'What If?'.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 20 Dec. 2012, http://www.espn.com/espn/espnfilms/story/_/id/8748334/espn-films-documentary-examines-sam-bowie-legacy. Web. 20 Aug. 2018.
Falk, Jeff. “Sam Bowie Subject Of ESPN Documentary « Lebanon Sports Buzz.” Lebanon Sports Buzz, 5 Points Auto Center, http://www.lebanonsportsbuzz.com/sam-bowie-subject-of-espn-documentary/. Web. 20 Aug. 2018.
Halberstam, David. Playing For Keeps: Michael Jordan And The World He Made. New York: Broadway Book, 2000. Print.
Howard-Cooper, Scott. “THE NBA : Nets Are More Than Happy Sam Bowie Can Play It Again.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 20 Mar. 1990, http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-20/sports/sp-646_1_sam-bowie. Web (Newspaper Archive). 20 Aug. 2018.
Kalb, Elliott. The 25 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All Time: Ranking Sports' Most Notorious Fixes, Cover-ups, and Scandals. New York: Skyhorse Pub., 2007. Print.
“Rodman Hit With Fine.” Orlando Sentinel, 5 Jan. 1994, http://www.articles.orlandosentinel.com/ 1994-01-05/sports/9401050540_1_dennis-rodman-sprained-thumb-los-angeles-lakers. Web (Newspaper Archive). 20 Aug. 2018.
Sachare, Alex. The Chicago Bulls Encyclopedia. Lincolnwood (Chicago): Contemporary , 1999. Print.
Sports Reference LLC. Basketball-Reference.com - Basketball Statistics and History. http://www.basketball-reference.com/. Web. 20 Aug. 2018.
Sports Reference LLC. College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com - College Basketball Statistics and History. http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/. Web. 20 Aug. 2018.
Tuohy, Brian. The Fix Is In: The Showbiz Manipulations Of The NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and NASCAR. Feral House, 2010.
Youtube. Youtube. Web. 20 Aug. 2018. <https://www.youtube.com/>.
I thought Sam was the one hurt!
Well, it wasn't only because MJ got hurt. Truth is, that only happened in 1985/86. That was His Airness' and the unfortunate Bowie's second NBA campaign. Jordan had wowed 'em as a rookie the previous season. Bowie had shown plenty of promise. The problem, of course, was Sam's injuries.
The Portland Trailblazers had drafted Sam second, and the Chicago Bulls drafted Michael third. The never-ending story you hear is how this was one, if not the, worst draft pick of all-time. Hadn't there been warning signs at the collegiate level (Bowie missed his second and third seasons with injuries)?
But Sam had been good enough to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated in December of 1983, his senior year at the University of Kentucky. He played in all 34 games games as the 'Cats went 29-5. But his numbers in 1983/84 were off from his 1980/81 output. His points-per-game went from 17.4 to 10.5. Uh oh.
So the Portland Trailblazers took him, following Houston's pick of some chap who also played centre named Olajuwon first. Jordan was picked third by Chicago. Dallas picked Sam Perkins, MJ's teammate at North Carolina, fourth, and a chap named Barkley went fifth to Philadelphia.
That, alone, made the 1984 NBA draft memorable. But while Hakeem, MJ and Charles had great careers (And Perkins went on to a solid, 17-year NBA campaign of his own), the unfortunate Bowie lasted just parts of ten seasons and just 511 games in the bigs.
Mind you, there had been other big men cut down with injuries. Portland had drafted another flop named LaRue Martin some years earlier. Then they'd drafted Bill Walton. While Bill nabbed an MVP award and two NBA rings, he played just 468 games in the National Basketball Association.
Was Bowie another flop? Yes, in the minds of many. But it didn't start out that way.
The Trailblazers had Clyde Drexler and Jim Paxon in the backcourt already, so it didn't look like they needed Michael Jordan. Plus, they'd drafted another NBA man in 1984: Jerome Kersey! Jerome ended up like Sam Perkins, a solid 17-year NBA career.
The Portland Trailblazers beat the Kansas (Now Sacramento) Kings in the season opener of the 1984/85 NBA season. Final score? 140-116! Bowie only scored 4 points in 23 minutes, but held opposing centre LaSalle Thompson to just 4-16 from the floor. The backcourt of Drexler and Paxon combined for 45 points and 9 rebounds.
But we gotta talk about MJ, right?
MJ ended up playing all 82 games and averaging 28.2 points-per game for the Chicago Bulls. Compare that to Bowie playing 76 games and averaging just 10 points and 8.6 assists. Sam and MJ shared a spot on the All-Rookie team that year. Remember the game where Michael got 38 vs. Dr. J, Mosses Malone and Charles Barkley?
Jordan played just 12 games the following season. Bowie, too, was hurt (And it wouldn't be the last time, believe me). The difference was Sam played in 38 games, and improved his scoring output, albeit slightly. 11.8 PPG. Was it a step back for Portland? Chicago had lost in the first round to Milwaukee in 1985, while Portland actually lost in the Western Conference semis. The Trailblazers and Bulls lost in the first round in 1986, but MJ had made his dramatic return!
Jordan scored a playoff-record 63 points against the eventual-NBA Champion Boston Celtics in the second contest. But the reality was, it was merely a double-OT loss by Chicago. Boston went on to a sweep. So, it was still a little hard to call either Chicago or Portland the "winner" in the '84 draft at this point.
But then came Sam's injuries.
Jordan averaged better than 37 points in 1986/87. Bowie played well in the five games he appeared that season. Notice I said 5 games? That'd be all Sam appeared in a Portland jersey for the next two seasons. Five games into the next season, this happened!
So Sam missed the rest of 1986/87 (77 games), all of 1987/88 (82 games), then play in just twenty games in 1988/89. Meanwhile, MJ was MJ. There's no real reason to bring up his stats, they're devastating. In '88/89 alone, he was at 35 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, leading Chicago to within two games of their first NBA finals.
So Portland traded Bowie to New Jersey for Buck Williams and a 1st round pick, getting to the finals in 1989/90 and 1991/92. Detroit beat both Jordan's Bulls and Clyde Drexler's Trailblazers in the last two rounds in the 1990 playoffs. Guess who Portland lost to in '92? Chicago. Ah.
Drexler and MJ went to the Olympics that year, for good measure. Where was Sam? He was now on the New Jersey Nets, and not fairing that bad all things considered. Oddly, he was healthy, and putting some more-than-respectable numbers.
Bowie averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds in 68 games in '89/90. By '91/92, he was up to 15 points-a-game.
The big men were suddenly a dying breed in the NBA: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had left after 1989, Mosses Malone was on the slide! Left were Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing and newcomer David Robinson. On the horizon was a kid named Shaquille O'Neal! Another big man, Tim Duncan, arrived at the end of the 1990s!
Sam and MJ met up in 1991/92, of course.
But Bowie's best game of 1991/92 (Or in his entire career) came against the man drafted ahead of him in 1984: The Dream!
Sam dropped 34 points and 15 rebounds on Hakeem Olajuwon on boxing day in 1991. The Dream had just 17 points and 7 rebounds on his own.
Michael Jordan, feeling the competitive fire burning out, surprisingly retired from the game in 1993, right after throwing out the first pitch of game one of baseball's American League Championship Series (Chicago vs. Toronto). MJ must have liked what he saw then. He tried his hand at some minor league baseball in 1994. Sam was still around the NBA, however. He'd played a career-high 79 games in 1992/93, some of them against rookie Shaq.
Bowie played just 25 games the next year, now in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform. He then played one final season in 1994/95, appearing in 67 games, but averaging just 4.6 points-per-game. He announced his retirement in the fall.
MJ had decided to come back in '94/95, but not until March. After 17 regular seasons games, his Chicago Bulls were back in the playoffs where Shaq and company of Orlando ran 'em out of there. But quick as lightning, Chicago did what they'd done from 1990/91-1992/93, 3-peat!
Sam Bowie, although retired at this point, actually had a chance to be a part of that, if you can believe it. The Bulls, looking for more strength in the middle, had Sam come down and workout with the Bulls. He even got have dinner with one of MJ's bosses, coach Phil Jackson. But Sam choose not to stick around. He'd already successfully transitioned to another passion: Horse racing! So he missed out on the 1995/96 72-10 Chicago Bulls.
Jordan retired two more times, for good after the 2002/2003 season (Sadly, he couldn't get his new team, the Washington Wizards, to the playoffs his last two seasons). He'd certainly outlasted Bowie, and there is no comparison as far as the rings go. But wouldn't it have been neat for the two of them to play together for a season or two? Just to show how the 1984 NBA draft was still huge years after the fact?
References
Bondy, Filip. Tip-off: How The 1984 NBA Draft Changed Basketball Forever. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2007. Print.
Elderkin, Phil. “Rookie Sam Bowie No Smash Hit, But Blazers Like His Potential.” The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Nov. 1984, http://www.csmonitor.com/ 1984/1113/111304.html. Web (Magazine Archive). 20 Aug. 2018.
Friend, Tom. “Sam Bowie Doesn't Ask 'What If?'.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 20 Dec. 2012, http://www.espn.com/espn/espnfilms/story/_/id/8748334/espn-films-documentary-examines-sam-bowie-legacy. Web. 20 Aug. 2018.
Falk, Jeff. “Sam Bowie Subject Of ESPN Documentary « Lebanon Sports Buzz.” Lebanon Sports Buzz, 5 Points Auto Center, http://www.lebanonsportsbuzz.com/sam-bowie-subject-of-espn-documentary/. Web. 20 Aug. 2018.
Halberstam, David. Playing For Keeps: Michael Jordan And The World He Made. New York: Broadway Book, 2000. Print.
Howard-Cooper, Scott. “THE NBA : Nets Are More Than Happy Sam Bowie Can Play It Again.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 20 Mar. 1990, http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-20/sports/sp-646_1_sam-bowie. Web (Newspaper Archive). 20 Aug. 2018.
Kalb, Elliott. The 25 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All Time: Ranking Sports' Most Notorious Fixes, Cover-ups, and Scandals. New York: Skyhorse Pub., 2007. Print.
“Rodman Hit With Fine.” Orlando Sentinel, 5 Jan. 1994, http://www.articles.orlandosentinel.com/ 1994-01-05/sports/9401050540_1_dennis-rodman-sprained-thumb-los-angeles-lakers. Web (Newspaper Archive). 20 Aug. 2018.
Sachare, Alex. The Chicago Bulls Encyclopedia. Lincolnwood (Chicago): Contemporary , 1999. Print.
Sports Reference LLC. College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com - College Basketball Statistics and History. http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/. Web. 20 Aug. 2018.
Tuohy, Brian. The Fix Is In: The Showbiz Manipulations Of The NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and NASCAR. Feral House, 2010.
Youtube. Youtube. Web. 20 Aug. 2018. <https://www.youtube.com/>.
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