Biggest mistake made in all of sports

hammer1

https://youtu.be/gPcyCq_Av7E

DIMEMAN

Jones sticking with Romo all those years!!!

stevek

The Red Sox getting rid of Babe Ruth. There's no other mistake in sports history remotely close.

Tabe

Might not be bigger than selling Ruth but taking Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan has to be pretty close.

garnettstyle

The Steelers refusing to draft Dan Marino.

perkdog

Every other team except the Patriots passing on Tom Brady in the draft 😂

galaxy27

@Tabe said:

taking Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan has to be pretty close.

sure, it looks like a monumental blunder on the Blazers' part after the fact, as the disparity in their careers is seismic. but at the time of the pick, taking Bowie over Jordan was much less of a gaffe than one might think.

first off, it was the era of the big man (Akeem Olajuwon was drafted ahead of MJ as well). they were must-haves, and Portland was in need of one post-Bill Walton. and don't forget, Bowie actually had a decent college career prior to getting injured.

second and more important, the Blazers already had a budding shooting guard by the name of Clyde Drexler. they did not need Jordan at that moment in time, therefore drafting him would have been nonsensical.

context helps

JoeBanzai

George Halas says the biggest one he made was trading Bill Brown to the Vikings.

Pappas for Frank Robby was bad.

Several #1 overall picks in Football have been disasters. JaMarcus Russell over Calvin Johnson was pretty bad.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Coinstartled

NFL and NBA cozying up to gambling syndicates will be disasterous. Think the botched call in the Rams, Saints game. Rigged or not rigged.

Oh well.

keets

Jim Marshall recovering a fumble and running 60 yards the wrong way.

dallasactuary

Thinking George Brett was better than Mike Schmidt.

Justacommeman

Calling a time out in the National Championship game when you didn’t have one

m

Darin

The Chiefs taking Todd Blackledge instead of Dan Marino or Jim Kelley.

I will forgive them however, if Mahomes takes them to the promised land a couple times.

breakdown

Jim Joyce costing Armando Galarraga the perfect game was pretty awful. Of course, Cardinal fans love to bring up Denkinger but I still think the Royals would have won anyway.

Justacommeman

@breakdown said:
Jim Joyce costing Armando Galarraga the perfect game was pretty awful.

That was brutal. The world needs more Armando Galarraga’s. He handled it with absolute class

Forever known as the 28 out perfect game

m

stevek

How about Jerry Jones getting rid of Jimmy Johnson?

Tabe

@galaxy27 said:

@Tabe said:

taking Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan has to be pretty close.

sure, it looks like a monumental blunder on the Blazers' part after the fact, as the disparity in their careers is seismic. but at the time of the pick, taking Bowie over Jordan was much less of a gaffe than one might think.

first off, it was the era of the big man (Akeem Olajuwon was drafted ahead of MJ as well). they were must-haves, and Portland was in need of one post-Bill Walton. and don't forget, Bowie actually had a decent college career prior to getting injured.

second and more important, the Blazers already had a budding shooting guard by the name of Clyde Drexler. they did not need Jordan at that moment in time, therefore drafting him would have been nonsensical.

context helps

Except they didn't do their due diligence to know that Bowie was already severely injured.

You're right. They didn't need Jordan and Drexler. That's why you draft Jordan and get rid of Drexler instead of drafting a guy that's badly injured.

coinpalice

Richard Sherman looked like he was in shock in that video

erikthredd

The Trailblazers deserve this more than many other players/teams. Not only did they pass on Jordan for a busted up Sam Bowie in 1984 but they also passed on Kevin Durant for a busted up Greg Oden in 2007.

JoeBanzai

OMG claiming Brett was better than Schmidt.

Sorry, I couldn't help it. Losing my mind here in Minnesota. 35 below two weeks ago and a TON of snow since then......another 8-12 inches today AARRRGGGGGHHHHH!

JRR300

How about the Sixers trading Wilt Chamberlain for ??????

galaxy27

@Tabe said:

@galaxy27 said:

@Tabe said:

taking Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan has to be pretty close.

sure, it looks like a monumental blunder on the Blazers' part after the fact, as the disparity in their careers is seismic. but at the time of the pick, taking Bowie over Jordan was much less of a gaffe than one might think.

first off, it was the era of the big man (Akeem Olajuwon was drafted ahead of MJ as well). they were must-haves, and Portland was in need of one post-Bill Walton. and don't forget, Bowie actually had a decent college career prior to getting injured.

second and more important, the Blazers already had a budding shooting guard by the name of Clyde Drexler. they did not need Jordan at that moment in time, therefore drafting him would have been nonsensical.

context helps

Except they didn't do their due diligence to know that Bowie was already severely injured.

You're right. They didn't need Jordan and Drexler. That's why you draft Jordan and get rid of Drexler instead of drafting a guy that's badly injured.

personally, i like to challenge conventional wisdom and re-examine what has been accepted as fact, as opposed to playing the lazy, hindsight 20/20 game. again, the decision was not as cut and dry as you might think.

first off, no one envisioned MJ becoming the greatest of all time. no one. i was a 12-year-old Bulls fan at the time and i can tell you exactly what i was thinking because i vividly remember. "i really like this Jordan guy and i hope we draft him." certainly not "i really like this Jordan guy and i hope we draft him, because he's going to be the best basketball player to ever lace up sneakers and he'll bring 6 championships to my team if we do."

remember, MJ averaged less than 18 points in college. again, no one saw it coming. a good player? yes. a great player? yes. the best of all time? no one. LeBron James busting into the league he was not.

second, if you were following the NBA at the time, then once again you know that it was a big man league in the 80s. in fact, from 1960 to the day Bowie was drafted, over 90% of league MVPs were centers. if you didn't have one, good luck winning a championship. not only did Portland desperately need one because Bill Walton's turn as a superstar was ending, but the Los Angeles Lakers had a guy named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on their roster and the Blazers had absolutely no one to slow him down. finding a center for no other reason than to guard him was imperative if they were ever going to reach the finals again.

as far as Portland not doing their due diligence, that's just you not being familiar with the situation. there was a 7-hour physical in which they performed every medical test possible.......and Bowie passed them all. except there was one slight problem: he lied. when they were banging on his tibia, he informed them that he felt fine. deep down, he was in pain. in fact, here's a direct quote from SB:

"I can still remember them taking a little mallet, and when they would hit me on my left tibia, and 'I don't feel anything,' I would tell 'em. But deep down inside, it was hurting. If what I did was lying and what I did was wrong, at the end of the day, when you have loved ones that have some needs, I did what any of us would have done."

and finally, no, they were not going to draft Jordan and get rid of Drexler (lol). they had just drafted Clyde the year before and they were in essence a carbon copy of each other. the absolute only way that would have happened is if someone possessed a crystal ball at the time. and don't forget, not only did the Blazers have an up-and-coming Clyde the Glide, but they also had another shooting guard by the name of Jim Paxson -- a guy who had averaged 21+ the previous two seasons. they were locked and loaded at the 2, and ostensibly there was no room for MJ on their squad. again, unless you miraculously were in possession of a crystal ball.

a lot of people like to pile on the Blazers without investigating further and thinking outside the box. they were, in many ways, quite unlucky. they got screwed on the coin flip for the #1 pick, Patrick Ewing decided to stay in college, Dean Smith's loaded Tar Heels team masked MJ's true potential, they were in desperate need of a 5 and the only other viable options (that went in the top-10) were Melvin Turpin and Otis Thorpe..........on and on and on. they drafted for need instead of drafting the best player on the board, and it burned them. happens. wasn't the the first time a franchise did that, and it certainly wasn't the last. yet because it happened when the GOAT was involved, it's always been time to whip out the tar and feathers.

bronco2078

@galaxy27 said:

@Tabe said:

@galaxy27 said:

@Tabe said:

taking Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan has to be pretty close.

sure, it looks like a monumental blunder on the Blazers' part after the fact, as the disparity in their careers is seismic. but at the time of the pick, taking Bowie over Jordan was much less of a gaffe than one might think.

first off, it was the era of the big man (Akeem Olajuwon was drafted ahead of MJ as well). they were must-haves, and Portland was in need of one post-Bill Walton. and don't forget, Bowie actually had a decent college career prior to getting injured.

second and more important, the Blazers already had a budding shooting guard by the name of Clyde Drexler. they did not need Jordan at that moment in time, therefore drafting him would have been nonsensical.

context helps

Except they didn't do their due diligence to know that Bowie was already severely injured.

You're right. They didn't need Jordan and Drexler. That's why you draft Jordan and get rid of Drexler instead of drafting a guy that's badly injured.

personally, i like to challenge conventional wisdom and re-examine what has been accepted as fact, as opposed to playing the lazy, hindsight 20/20 game. again, the decision was not as cut and dry as you might think.

first off, no one envisioned MJ becoming the greatest of all time. no one. i was a 12-year-old Bulls fan at the time and i can tell you exactly what i was thinking because i vividly remember. "i really like this Jordan guy and i hope we draft him." certainly not "i really like this Jordan guy and i hope we draft him, because he's going to be the best basketball player to ever lace up sneakers and he'll bring 6 championships to my team if we do."

remember, MJ averaged less than 18 points in college. again, no one saw it coming. a good player? yes. a great player? yes. the best of all time? no one. LeBron James busting into the league he was not.

second, if you were following the NBA at the time, then once again you know that it was a big man league in the 80s. in fact, from 1960 to the day Bowie was drafted, over 90% of league MVPs were centers. if you didn't have one, good luck winning a championship. not only did Portland desperately need one because Bill Walton's turn as a superstar was ending, but the Los Angeles Lakers had a guy named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on their roster and the Blazers had absolutely no one to slow him down. finding a center for no other reason than to guard him was imperative if they were ever going to reach the finals again.

as far as Portland not doing their due diligence, that's just you not being familiar with the situation. there was a 7-hour physical in which they performed every medical test possible.......and Bowie passed them all. except there was one slight problem: he lied. when they were banging on his tibia, he informed them that he felt fine. deep down, he was in pain. in fact, here's a direct quote from SB:

"I can still remember them taking a little mallet, and when they would hit me on my left tibia, and 'I don't feel anything,' I would tell 'em. But deep down inside, it was hurting. If what I did was lying and what I did was wrong, at the end of the day, when you have loved ones that have some needs, I did what any of us would have done."

and finally, no, they were not going to draft Jordan and get rid of Drexler (lol). they had just drafted Clyde the year before and they were in essence a carbon copy of each other. the absolute only way that would have happened is if someone possessed a crystal ball at the time. and don't forget, not only did the Blazers have an up-and-coming Clyde the Glide, but they also had another shooting guard by the name of Jim Paxson -- a guy who had averaged 21+ the previous two seasons. they were locked and loaded at the 2, and ostensibly there was no room for MJ on their squad. again, unless you miraculously were in possession of a crystal ball.

a lot of people like to pile on the Blazers without investigating further and thinking outside the box. they were, in many ways, quite unlucky. they got screwed on the coin flip for the #1 pick, Patrick Ewing decided to stay in college, Dean Smith's loaded Tar Heels team masked MJ's true potential, they were in desperate need of a 5 and the only other viable options (that went in the top-10) were Melvin Turpin and Otis Thorpe..........on and on and on. they drafted for need instead of drafting the best player on the board, and it burned them. happens. wasn't the the first time a franchise did that, and it certainly wasn't the last. yet because it happened when the GOAT was involved, it's always been time to whip out the tar and feathers.

You could have just said Tom Brady

craig44

@galaxy27 said:

@Tabe said:

@galaxy27 said:

@Tabe said:

taking Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan has to be pretty close.

sure, it looks like a monumental blunder on the Blazers' part after the fact, as the disparity in their careers is seismic. but at the time of the pick, taking Bowie over Jordan was much less of a gaffe than one might think.

first off, it was the era of the big man (Akeem Olajuwon was drafted ahead of MJ as well). they were must-haves, and Portland was in need of one post-Bill Walton. and don't forget, Bowie actually had a decent college career prior to getting injured.

second and more important, the Blazers already had a budding shooting guard by the name of Clyde Drexler. they did not need Jordan at that moment in time, therefore drafting him would have been nonsensical.

context helps

Except they didn't do their due diligence to know that Bowie was already severely injured.

You're right. They didn't need Jordan and Drexler. That's why you draft Jordan and get rid of Drexler instead of drafting a guy that's badly injured.

personally, i like to challenge conventional wisdom and re-examine what has been accepted as fact, as opposed to playing the lazy, hindsight 20/20 game. again, the decision was not as cut and dry as you might think.

first off, no one envisioned MJ becoming the greatest of all time. no one. i was a 12-year-old Bulls fan at the time and i can tell you exactly what i was thinking because i vividly remember. "i really like this Jordan guy and i hope we draft him." certainly not "i really like this Jordan guy and i hope we draft him, because he's going to be the best basketball player to ever lace up sneakers and he'll bring 6 championships to my team if we do."

remember, MJ averaged less than 18 points in college. again, no one saw it coming. a good player? yes. a great player? yes. the best of all time? no one. LeBron James busting into the league he was not.

second, if you were following the NBA at the time, then once again you know that it was a big man league in the 80s. in fact, from 1960 to the day Bowie was drafted, over 90% of league MVPs were centers. if you didn't have one, good luck winning a championship. not only did Portland desperately need one because Bill Walton's turn as a superstar was ending, but the Los Angeles Lakers had a guy named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on their roster and the Blazers had absolutely no one to slow him down. finding a center for no other reason than to guard him was imperative if they were ever going to reach the finals again.

as far as Portland not doing their due diligence, that's just you not being familiar with the situation. there was a 7-hour physical in which they performed every medical test possible.......and Bowie passed them all. except there was one slight problem: he lied. when they were banging on his tibia, he informed them that he felt fine. deep down, he was in pain. in fact, here's a direct quote from SB:

"I can still remember them taking a little mallet, and when they would hit me on my left tibia, and 'I don't feel anything,' I would tell 'em. But deep down inside, it was hurting. If what I did was lying and what I did was wrong, at the end of the day, when you have loved ones that have some needs, I did what any of us would have done."

and finally, no, they were not going to draft Jordan and get rid of Drexler (lol). they had just drafted Clyde the year before and they were in essence a carbon copy of each other. the absolute only way that would have happened is if someone possessed a crystal ball at the time. and don't forget, not only did the Blazers have an up-and-coming Clyde the Glide, but they also had another shooting guard by the name of Jim Paxson -- a guy who had averaged 21+ the previous two seasons. they were locked and loaded at the 2, and ostensibly there was no room for MJ on their squad. again, unless you miraculously were in possession of a crystal ball.

a lot of people like to pile on the Blazers without investigating further and thinking outside the box. they were, in many ways, quite unlucky. they got screwed on the coin flip for the #1 pick, Patrick Ewing decided to stay in college, Dean Smith's loaded Tar Heels team masked MJ's true potential, they were in desperate need of a 5 and the only other viable options (that went in the top-10) were Melvin Turpin and Otis Thorpe..........on and on and on. they drafted for need instead of drafting the best player on the board, and it burned them. happens. wasn't the the first time a franchise did that, and it certainly wasn't the last. yet because it happened when the GOAT was involved, it's always been time to whip out the tar and feathers.

That is some solid analysis!

craig44

How about not giving marshawn lynch the ball at the one yard line

bronco2078

@craig44 said:
How about not giving marshawn lynch the ball at the one yard line

It's called "halo" and it works pretty well , except when it doesn't

erikthredd

Jordan & Drexler could have been a great tandem regardless of both being labeled as "shooting guards." We saw the Bulls win multiple championships without a traditional point guard starting for them with 6-6 Ron Harper,6-6 Jordan & 6-8 Scottie Pippen and all three handled the ball at times. Harper was a career 19ppg player before signing with Chicago and the Bulls found a way to make it work with those three players. Its was also Jordan & Pippen's Bulls that showed it was possible to win championships with average players at center.
Pippen & Drexler statwise had very similar Bulls/Blazers numbers:
Pippen 856 games, 17.7ppg, 6.7rpg, 5.3apg
Drexler 867 games, 20.8ppg, 6.2rpg, 5.7apg

Sure its 20/20 hindsight thinking that MJ & Drexler could have have coexisted together after the fact but isn't the entire premise for this thread looking back in hindsight? Pete Carroll surely wasn't thinking that if Wilson throws a pick there then his team's chemistry would ultimately be the downfall for Seattle's run as a legit SB contender. The Red Sox weren't thinking they were trading away the future home run king when Babe Ruth had a total of 49 home runs in his six seasons in Boston then in NY he surpassed that total in his first season alone. Boston traded a starting pitcher/part time hitter and NY got a full time hitter/part time pitcher.

stevek

@craig44 said:

@galaxy27 said:

@Tabe said:

@galaxy27 said:

@Tabe said:

taking Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan has to be pretty close.

sure, it looks like a monumental blunder on the Blazers' part after the fact, as the disparity in their careers is seismic. but at the time of the pick, taking Bowie over Jordan was much less of a gaffe than one might think.

first off, it was the era of the big man (Akeem Olajuwon was drafted ahead of MJ as well). they were must-haves, and Portland was in need of one post-Bill Walton. and don't forget, Bowie actually had a decent college career prior to getting injured.

second and more important, the Blazers already had a budding shooting guard by the name of Clyde Drexler. they did not need Jordan at that moment in time, therefore drafting him would have been nonsensical.

context helps

Except they didn't do their due diligence to know that Bowie was already severely injured.

You're right. They didn't need Jordan and Drexler. That's why you draft Jordan and get rid of Drexler instead of drafting a guy that's badly injured.

personally, i like to challenge conventional wisdom and re-examine what has been accepted as fact, as opposed to playing the lazy, hindsight 20/20 game. again, the decision was not as cut and dry as you might think.

first off, no one envisioned MJ becoming the greatest of all time. no one. i was a 12-year-old Bulls fan at the time and i can tell you exactly what i was thinking because i vividly remember. "i really like this Jordan guy and i hope we draft him." certainly not "i really like this Jordan guy and i hope we draft him, because he's going to be the best basketball player to ever lace up sneakers and he'll bring 6 championships to my team if we do."

remember, MJ averaged less than 18 points in college. again, no one saw it coming. a good player? yes. a great player? yes. the best of all time? no one. LeBron James busting into the league he was not.

second, if you were following the NBA at the time, then once again you know that it was a big man league in the 80s. in fact, from 1960 to the day Bowie was drafted, over 90% of league MVPs were centers. if you didn't have one, good luck winning a championship. not only did Portland desperately need one because Bill Walton's turn as a superstar was ending, but the Los Angeles Lakers had a guy named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on their roster and the Blazers had absolutely no one to slow him down. finding a center for no other reason than to guard him was imperative if they were ever going to reach the finals again.

as far as Portland not doing their due diligence, that's just you not being familiar with the situation. there was a 7-hour physical in which they performed every medical test possible.......and Bowie passed them all. except there was one slight problem: he lied. when they were banging on his tibia, he informed them that he felt fine. deep down, he was in pain. in fact, here's a direct quote from SB:

"I can still remember them taking a little mallet, and when they would hit me on my left tibia, and 'I don't feel anything,' I would tell 'em. But deep down inside, it was hurting. If what I did was lying and what I did was wrong, at the end of the day, when you have loved ones that have some needs, I did what any of us would have done."

and finally, no, they were not going to draft Jordan and get rid of Drexler (lol). they had just drafted Clyde the year before and they were in essence a carbon copy of each other. the absolute only way that would have happened is if someone possessed a crystal ball at the time. and don't forget, not only did the Blazers have an up-and-coming Clyde the Glide, but they also had another shooting guard by the name of Jim Paxson -- a guy who had averaged 21+ the previous two seasons. they were locked and loaded at the 2, and ostensibly there was no room for MJ on their squad. again, unless you miraculously were in possession of a crystal ball.

a lot of people like to pile on the Blazers without investigating further and thinking outside the box. they were, in many ways, quite unlucky. they got screwed on the coin flip for the #1 pick, Patrick Ewing decided to stay in college, Dean Smith's loaded Tar Heels team masked MJ's true potential, they were in desperate need of a 5 and the only other viable options (that went in the top-10) were Melvin Turpin and Otis Thorpe..........on and on and on. they drafted for need instead of drafting the best player on the board, and it burned them. happens. wasn't the the first time a franchise did that, and it certainly wasn't the last. yet because it happened when the GOAT was involved, it's always been time to whip out the tar and feathers.

That is some solid analysis!

That's not really allowed at Sports Talk, is it?

erikthredd

@bronco2078 said:

@craig44 said:
How about not giving marshawn lynch the ball at the one yard line

It's called "halo" and it works pretty well , except when it doesn't

Throw it Bev!

bronco2078

These days even my hindsight is unreliable

Estil

How does that cliche go about hindsight being 20/20?

And while it is true the Trail Blazers did need a center...were there realistically any other options for center besides Hakeem (who the Rockets already took)? The main problem of course was that even at the time Bowie was something of a glass player (someone who is a high injury risk). And who up to that point in time actually thought Jordan would become anywhere close to...well...Jordan?

Another "biggest mistake" cited among my fellow BBNers was of course the infamous 1992 Puke game, where we didn't guard the inbounds passer (Grant Hill). Honestly, I don't think the move was entirely unconscionable. The idea of "not guarding the inbounds passer" was that in the frontcourt we would have a 5 vs 4 "power play" sort of deal where KY would have all five players defending against just four Puke guys. And really, Grant hitting his target (Latner) just right and in such a way he had time to make the shot was much harder than it looked. So yes, it didn't work out and that moment is now our "Bill Buckner" moment but honestly I don't think the reasoning behind the endgame strategy was all that bad.

erikthredd

No one knew that Jordan would eventually become the GOAT in his sport at the time he was drafted but lets stop acting like he was this halfway decent player that got drafted high. He was the Consensus College Player of the Year his last season at UNC and this was after hitting a game winning shot to win the NCAA National Championship as a freshman. Soon after getting drafted he led the Men's Olympic team to a Gold medal as well.
Some may say that Portland didn't need another shooting guard but technically they really didn't need another center either when they still had former 1st overall pick Mychal Thompson who was putting up somewhat solid numbers already. This situation should have absolutely been take the best player available and by drafting for need it ended up hurting them in the long run. Bowie gets drafted and Thompson gets traded a year or two later. Then Bowie gets hurt so Portland drafts Arvydas Sabonis who then decided to wait nine years before coming to the NBA. which then left the Blazers looking to trade for another center in Kevin Duckworth. That trade salvaged some pretty horrible picks.

Tabe

I am absolutely familiar with the context of Portland's draft pick. I get all the arguments for not taking Jordan. They're all wrong. Fact is, in college, Jordan was A LOT better than Bowie. And he was healthy. And do you really think Portland did their medical die diligence because they used a rubber mallet? LOL.

They drafted a guy who missed two full seasons and then averaged 10 points a game as a senior over the national player of the year. That's indefensible.

galaxy27

@Tabe said:

I am absolutely familiar with the context of Portland's draft pick. I get all the arguments for not taking Jordan.

apparently you don't

They're all wrong.

ok mr. monday-morning quarterback

Fact is, in college, Jordan was A LOT better than Bowie.

no, he wasn't A LOT better. examine the stats. take note of the accolades. but even if he was, it's beside the point. the point you still fail to grasp, amazingly.

And do you really think Portland did their medical die diligence because they used a rubber mallet? LOL.

it was a 7-hour physical. he was cleared by both UK & Portland's medical staffs, and his leg was deemed stronger than ever heading into the draft. but yes, the dude lied in the midst of it all. reading comprehension skills, try to refine yours.

They drafted a guy who missed two full seasons and then averaged 10 points a game as a senior over the national player of the year.

you mean when Bowie was second-team all-american? that senior year?

That's indefensible.

sure it is, when the only missing component on a team filled with scorers was a defensive presence who could dominate the lane and rebound. maybe Portland should have fired Jack Ramsay and hired you so Jordan could play the 5 (seeing as he apparently played center and was A LOT better?), then Kareem could have averaged a Guinness Book of World Records 75 ppg in the Western Conference Finals every year

Coinstartled

Ryan Leaf

Tabe

@galaxy27 said:

@Tabe said:

I am absolutely familiar with the context of Portland's draft pick. I get all the arguments for not taking Jordan.

apparently you don't

They're all wrong.

ok mr. monday-morning quarterback

Fact is, in college, Jordan was A LOT better than Bowie.

no, he wasn't A LOT better. examine the stats. take note of the accolades. but even if he was, it's beside the point. the point you still fail to grasp, amazingly.

And do you really think Portland did their medical die diligence because they used a rubber mallet? LOL.

it was a 7-hour physical. he was cleared by both UK & Portland's medical staffs, and his leg was deemed stronger than ever heading into the draft. but yes, the dude lied in the midst of it all. reading comprehension skills, try to refine yours.

They drafted a guy who missed two full seasons and then averaged 10 points a game as a senior over the national player of the year.

you mean when Bowie was second-team all-american? that senior year?

That's indefensible.

sure it is, when the only missing component on a team filled with scorers was a defensive presence who could dominate the lane and rebound. maybe Portland should have fired Jack Ramsay and hired you so Jordan could play the 5 (seeing as he apparently played center and was A LOT better?), then Kareem could have averaged a Guinness Book of World Records 75 ppg in the Western Conference Finals every year

No need to be insulting. I've been civil to you.

Portland had a starting center who averaged 16 & 9 during his Portland career. This idea that they needed a 5 is simply not true.

Bowie averaged 10 & 9 his senior year after missing two full seasons. That's simply not enough production for a #3 overall pick. Yes, he was second-team on the AP All-American team, a selection only made possible because the AP decided that Hakeem Olajuwon was a forward or that two centers on the first team were OK. The "consensus" All-Americna 1st & 2nd teams didn't have Bowie on them.

Yes, Bowie lied about his pain levels. Yes, Portland & UK cleared him. And guess what? He was still injured. So they didn't do a good enough job. That's on them.

Again, they passed over the national player of the year in favor of a guy who averaged 10 points and had missed two full seasons. Bowie played alright when healthy but, shock of all shocks, missed over 270 games in his five years with Portland. Even if you ignore the player they COULD have had, taking Bowie was a bad pick. That's not hindsight talking. That's just common sense. A big man with foot/leg problems who's missed 2 full seasons already? When you already have a quality starting center and recent experience with a center with foot problems missing tons of time (Bill Walton)? C'mon.

Also, other guys they COULD have taken: Charles Barkley, Sam Perkins, Kevin Willis.

galaxy27

we'll agree to disagree. i'm not saying it was the right pick, all i'm saying is that i'm a little more understanding than most as to why they went that route. Portland had a good team already, chock-full of guys who could put the ball in the basket. but the most glaring deficiency was at the center position. Klay's dad was a very good player, but at 6'10", 225 he didn't have the bulk to be a 5 on a nightly basis. not in the mid-80s, at least. if we were discussing today's small ball era, things would be different. here's a direct quote from HOF inductee Jack Ramsay, one of the better coaches in league history:

"It made the most sense for us to select Sam Bowie. It was almost a no-brainer," Ramsay says.

also, and not many people know this, but the Bulls very nearly traded out of the 3 slot...........to acquire a center.

bronco2078

this thread is salty

Darin

Merkle's boner.

bronco2078

@Darin said:
Merkle's boner.

It's true , angela is a man !!

Darin

Good sir, I'm talking about Fred Merkle's boner!

Tabe

@galaxy27 said:
we'll agree to disagree. i'm not saying it was the right pick, all i'm saying is that i'm a little more understanding than most as to why they went that route. Portland had a good team already, chock-full of guys who could put the ball in the basket. but the most glaring deficiency was at the center position. Klay's dad was a very good player, but at 6'10", 225 he didn't have the bulk to be a 5 on a nightly basis. not in the mid-80s, at least. if we were discussing today's small ball era, things would be different. here's a direct quote from HOF inductee Jack Ramsay, one of the better coaches in league history:

"It made the most sense for us to select Sam Bowie. It was almost a no-brainer," Ramsay says.

also, and not many people know this, but the Bulls very nearly traded out of the 3 slot...........to acquire a center.

Agree to disagree, it's all good.

keets

** I did what any of us would have done**

maybe not all of us.

pocketpiececommems

@breakdown said:
Jim Joyce costing Armando Galarraga the perfect game was pretty awful. Of course, Cardinal fans love to bring up Denkinger but I still think the Royals would have won anyway.

Cardinal fans always want to bring up Denkinger but they always seem to forget the call against the Royals at 2nd base earlier in the game.