Lottery Justice
 

Does anyone else think that there was some cosmic justice in this year's NBA lottery? :D

Neither of the two teams with the worst records (Memphis and Boston) were selected for the top three picks and thus will choose 4th and 5th, respectively.

That should quiet the "tanking" conspiracy!

"With the second pick in the 1984 NBA draft, the Portland Trailblazers select Sam Bowie of the University of Kentucky."

If the Jailblazers draft Oden, they could repeat history.

Sam Bowie did not play most of his career at Kentucky because of injury. I even think Bowie missed an entire season and most of another season. Oden only broke a wrist and played with that injury and performed very well. Not quite the same person or history. I think Oden will make any team he plays on much better.

Peace

Yes, some teams were tanking games. It was factual to me that some teams were losing to get better draft positioning or that they did not care to win or lose. Go to archives on articles regarding games in which players made quotes as to why they were starters/stars being pulled during a close game. Sometimes later picks may benefit your team if you have a good scouting and player personnel department (recent #5 NBA draft picks).

Poor Sam Bowie. You know, at the time it was a better pick for Portland. They didn't need Jordan with Drexler already there. Sam was a gamble, but especially at that time, teams needed size.

First, that's not true and second, that's not the history I'm referring to.

Sam Bowie missed one season at UK because of injury but he played 96 games in his other three seasons. So to say he "did not play most of his career" and missed "most of another season" is incorrect.

Portland drafted Bowie when they should have drafted Jordan.

If they draft Oden instead of Kevin Durant, they will have once again screwed the pooch, IMHO.

That's my point. Time will tell.

Hindsight being 20/20, we now know that's not true. Jordan and Drexler could easily have co-existed in the same starting lineup. Portland would have won more championships with jordan and Drexler than Chicago did with Jordan and Pippen.

Hopefully, in 10 years, both Durant and Oden will have had miserable careers so that neither of you can make the absolutely bogus claim of knowing 10 years ago how good your respective picks would be.

The kids these days are too young and too inexperienced for it to be anything more than a crapshoot, plain and simple. That's why they call it the lottery.

Actually, it's not.

That's why some people continue the metaphor.

Actually, I think Oden would be a good fit for Portland. I believe Durant is the better player, but he's not someone the Blazers need right now. LaMarcus Aldridge is the same type player and is already here and had a good rookie season...what Portland needs right now is a rebounder and defensive presence in the middle - that would be Oden, not Durant...

Besides, if Portland takes Oden, then the Sonics can take Durant!! :D

I don't know that Drexler and Jordan would have worked well together early in their career. They both needed plenty of shots at that point. It would have been fun seeing them running the break together though.

The rumor here in Portland is that the Blazers will trade their first pick for the rights to redraft LaRue Martin! :eek:

While that is a popular point of view, we can never really know. Injuries are unpredictable and who know what would have happened if the picks were different. Bowie may have had different conditioning and training that may have helped avoided his injuries. Jordan may have become injured and never been the same. You just can't tell in this type of situation.

Bowie was a well respected college player that was expected to be a NBA star. Sure Jordan, by far, ended up the better player. But was Bowie the wrong pick? Only if you can see the future and tell who'll never overcome an injury.

Sam Bowie

I know this was a long time ago, but this source says he missed two seasons and I have read and heard that he missed a lot of other time to constant leg injuries. So I am not sure what I said that was not true? Oh well it does not make that much difference to me. I just remember that Bowie had many health problems at Kentucky and it had been said that the Trail Blazers should have known Bowie was a bigger risk. But the Trail Blazers did have Drexler and even without picking Bowie Jordan might not have been a perfect fit.

Peace