Michael Jordan came into the NBA and blew all expectations out of the water. Jordan was the third overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft and ended up becoming the most influential player in the history of basketball. Jordan was a sensation and ended up rising quickly among the best of the NBA, becoming one of the best players in the league just after his first season. But it is truly surprising just how low expectations were for MJ.
Michael Jordan was snubbed for Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie in the 1984 Draft. Hakeem was the consensus first overall pick, and in fairness, Olajuwon also went on to become an all-time great and a multiple-time NBA champion. But Sam Bowie ended up being a bust, someone who was very injury prone and never amounted to much in the NBA, especially when compared to Michael Jordan.
But at the time of the draft, even the Chicago Bulls were not thrilled about getting Michael Jordan. Then-Chicago Bulls general manager Rod Thorn noted that he wished Jordan was 7-feet tall. On top of that, Thorn even said that Michael Jordan would be a great scorer for the Chicago Bulls, but wouldn’t be the kind of scorer that could help change the franchise.
“We wish Jordan were 7-feet, but he isn’t. There just wasn’t a center available. What can you do? Jordan isn’t going to turn this franchise around. I wouldn’t ask him to. He’s a very good offensive player, but not an overpowering offensive player.
Thorn also revealed in an interview years later that the Portland Trail Blazers had guaranteed that they would take Sam Bowie if he passed his physical, which they did, and thus the decision to draft Jordan was set. But they also knew they couldn’t trust them, so they had Sam Perkins as an alternative, and had even snubbed Charles Barkley. Thorn noted that getting Jordan would have been a mistake.
“We knew about a week before the draft that Jordan would be available. Portland… had told me that if Sam Bowie passed his physical, they would draft him. A week before the draft, I asked him if Bowie passed, and if they were still going to draft him. We knew a week before the draft, unless some crazy trade happened, that Jordan would be available at number three. If Jordan had been gone, we would have taken Sam Perkins. My feeling about Charles Barkley, and I scouted Barkley at the time, was that he was too small to do it in the NBA, what he was doing at Auburn. Sam Perkins had a nice career and was a very good player, but that would have been a mistake.”
Jordan’s draft night was interesting, as he wasn’t even present for the draft. Michael Jordan was trying out to be a part of Team USA at the 1984 Olympics and skipped his own draft night to try and get into the team.
The funny thing is that Jordan would end up being just that. He transformed the Chicago Bulls almost instantly, taking them from a fledgling team to a regular playoff team. And eventually, Jordan would lead the Chicago Bulls to the NBA championship, doing so 6 times in his career. In fact, the Bulls haven’t had any player come close to the level of Jordan, and in reality, neither has any other team in the entire league.
