Speaking of the most successful NBA franchises in the history of the league, one cannot simply leave the name of the Los Angeles Lakers off the list. The Lakers have won 17 NBA Championships and have been home to some of the brightest superstars to ever play in the NBA.
The late owner of the Lakers, Dr. Jerry Buss, deserves a lot of credit for that success. In 1979, Buss purchased the franchise when the league as a whole was on the verge of becoming bankrupt. But that didn’t matter to Buss, and he decided to go ahead with the move, anyway.
After completing that transaction, Dr. Buss didn’t stop there, as he wanted to create a phenomenal NBA franchise. The first step to having a good franchise in the league is having a superstar on the roster.
At the time, the Lakers had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the roster, but KAJ was very introverted. So the Lakers needed a superstar who had a lot of swagger and could become the face of the franchise for years to come.
Well, the Purple and Gold found that talent in the 1979 NBA Draft when they drafted Magic Johnson using the first overall pick. Magic went on to help the Lakers win five NBA Championships in the 1980s.
Magic Johnson Could Have Been A Chicago Bull
Yes, you heard it right. The first pick of the 1979 NBA Draft was decided with a coin flip between the Lakers and the Bulls. The Purple and Gold ended up winning the coin flip and hence were granted the first overall pick in the draft.
But what if Magic was drafted by the Bulls? Well, Johnson himself revealed one huge impact if he had been drafted by the Bulls instead of the Lakers in a recent interview.
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“Can you believe that if I had to went to the Bulls there would be no Michael Jordan in Chicago. I’m glad I ended up here. Playing with Kareem, all of that.”
When people think of the Chicago Bulls, they think of Michael Jordan. He left such an unforgettable impact on the fans while wearing the Bulls jersey for the majority of his career.
But as Magic explained, if he had ended up on the Bulls, the team would never have been so bad that they ended up with the third pick in the 1984 NBA Draft. Hence, MJ would have gone to some other NBA franchise.
