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Originally Posted by Nevadaref
Why? Let me point out a big man named Patrick Ewing. Tremendous college player, excellent pro player, ZERO NBA titles.
BTW a parallel between Oden and Ewing is that both took their teams to the NCAA title game as freshman and lost.
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Ewing wanted to be Kevin Durant instead of being Bill Russell. He was in love with his jump shot and sometimes reluctant to go to the hole. Nevertheless the Knicks were a Charles Smith layup and a John Starks jump shot from two titles.
Clyde Drexler was not as good as Jordan, but the question is whether Drexler and Jordan would have been as good as Drexler and Bowie. At the time it wasn't all that clear, although I was not a big Bowie fan. I always think if a center is that good, they should be dominant. I never saw Bowie as dominant. I thought he was another Mychal Thompson or Kent Benson, great college players that would be journeyman pros.
Then again, no one knew Jordan would be that good. If he didn't come back from his injury his second year and Bowie did, you might be arguing the other way. Jordan became dominant by hard work and adding Scottie Pippin and Phil Jackson.
Ten years from now, people may be writing how stupid they were for not taking Yi or Wright or Belinelli or Tomic.
As for saying that players like Michael Jordan only come along once in a generation, you're giving him too much credit. At the time Jordan came along you also had Wilkins, Drexler and Bird, who were also wings, as well as Pippin a few years later. If Durant proves to be as good as any of these players, I'm sure whoever drafts him will be happy.