NBA
The Portland Trail Blazers Could Have Dodged the Sam Bowie Bullet By Listening to Bob Knight
Joe Kozlowski began his career as a sports journalist in 2013 and joined Sports7 in 2019. He covers the NBA and soccer for Sports7, with specialties in legacy NBA players such as Michael Jordan and Premier League club Arsenal. Off the clock, he's a Kansas City Chiefs fan and a hockey goalie. Growing up loving Shaquille O'Neal and reading everything he could about the great big men throughout NBA history — likely because he was still tall enough, at least relative to his peers, to play center — he's continued to love learning about and exploring the historical and story-based sides of the basketball archives. As for Arsenal, Joe spent a year living in London and latched onto the local support of the club. He's barely missed a match since, loving Arsene Wenger, enduring the Banter Era, and following along through rebuilds. The Premier League interest developed into a passionate following of the Champions League, Europe's big five league, and international soccer as a whole when played at the highest level. Regardless of the sport, Joe is captivated by the stories of athletes beyond the box scores and how they push the envelope — both in terms of what we think a human is capable of accomplishing and how they find new competitive tactics to win.
Get to know Joe Kozlowski betterUpdated07 Jul 2023
In the world of sports, certain moments live in infamy. The 1984 NBA draft stands tall as one of the leading candidates. As you surely know, the Portland Trail Blazers passed up Michael Jordan — arguably the greatest player in Association history — to select Sam Bowie.
While that decision has been picked apart through virtually every imaginable lens over the years, did you know that Bob Knight apparently told the Blazers' general manager to make the right choice and just draft Jordan? Well, if we take Bill Simmons at his word, that's apparently what happened.
Don't believe it? Let's travel back to the 1980s and check it out.
Bob Knight said that Michael Jordan was worth drafting ahead of Sam Bowie, but the Blazers didn't listen
During his time in the basketball spotlight, Bob Knight established a reputation as a tough customer who wasn't going to pull any punches. Even when he was dealing with his friends, that reality didn't change.
Knight had worked with Michael Jordan on the United States National Team, and despite some inevitable clashes, he came away from the experience thinking rather highly of the UNC product. He even went as far as calling MJ the best athlete he ever saw play the game of basketball in what's become a famous interview.
Based on that context, it's not surprising that he told Stu Inman to draft Mike in 1984. Allow one of Bill Simmons' old ESPN posts to explain :
Bobby Knight, who'd coached MJ at the '84 Olympic trials, urged Blazers GM Stu Inman (an old pal) to take Jordan. Inman said, “But we need a center.” Knight yelled back, “So play him at center!” Inman didn't listen, and the result is a jaw-dropping scene.
Bill Simmons
And, from there, the rest is history. The Blazers, of course, stuck to the idea that they needed a big man and selected Bowie. The big man couldn't stay healthy, eventually left Portland, and ultimately retired after the 1994-94 season. He played a grand total of 511 games across the years, averaging 10.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks per outing.
As I've previously discussed, it's not a foregone conclusion that Jordan would have headed to the Pacific Northwest if Portland passed on Bowie. Like Inman said, there was the idea that teams needed big men, rather than guards, to reach the promised land. Passing on the Kentucky product, however, still would have been a positive development; it could have brought Sam Perkins of Charles Barkley to the Blazers, providing both size and, more crucially, availability.
Was Bobby Knight always perfect? Definitely not. In this case, though, listening to him was 100% the right move.
