Wost Pick Ever?

By: Eli Kaberon

It was 24 summers ago, in June of 1984, that the Portland Trail Blazers made the biggest mistake since Japan provoked the United States into World War II. Equipped with the second pick in the best NBA Draft class of all-time, Portland decided to select University of Kentucky center Sam Bowie instead of future NBA Hall-of-Famers Charles Barkley, John Stockton, and one Michael Jeffery Jordan. The selection, specifically Bowie over Jordan, is widely regarded as the worst ever pick in any draft ever, regardless of year or sport.

The pick has become synonymous with size over skill and crippling injuries over championship rings; it changed the future not only for the two teams and players, but also the entire league and a certain shoe company. Jordan went on to win six world titles, five League Most Valuable Player awards, six Finals Most Valuable Player Awards, was a 14-time All-Star and hold multiple record, both in the regular season and playoffs. Bowie on the other hand never played a full 82-game season, never reached the All-Star game or NBA Finals and was out of basketball less than a decade after he was drafted.

So of course Bowie over Jordan proved to be a model for future General Managers and NBA scouts. No team wanted to follow the Portland method of taking the risky big man over the sure-fire athletic player. That was until 2003, the year that the best draft class since ‘84 was available.

The Detroit Pistons, thanks to a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies, had the second pick in the draft even though they had the best record in the Eastern Conference the previous season. General Manager Joe Dumars had already assembled quite a team, getting point guard Chauncey Billups off of the free agent scrap heap, shooting guard Rip Hamilton in a trade with the Washington Wizards, and drafting small forward Tayshaun Prince in the ‘02 draft after such picks as Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Dajuan Wagner and Qyntel Woods. All the Pistons were missing was one final piece, a go-to scorer who could get them that big bucket at the end of a close playoff game. And if there was ever a draft to find a go-to scorer, it was 2003.

Most people will remember the ‘03 draft for the first player taken. The Cleveland Cavaliers selected high schooler LeBron James number one overall, immediately making The King the best thing to hit Cleveland since rock & roll. But the rest of the class wasn’t too shabby either. Syracuse forward Carmello Anthony was available after taking the Orange to the National Title in his one and only year in college. Georgia Tech big man Chris Bosh, who led the ACC in field goal percentage during his lone year at Georgia Tech, was in the draft. Marquette guard Dwyane Wade was in the draft after taking the Golden Eagles to the Final Four. Point guards Kirk Hinrich of Kansas and T.J. Ford of Texas were both All-Americans in college. And then there was future All-Stars Josh Howard and David West, as well as future NBA Most Improved Player Boris Diaw.

The Detroit Pistons chose to select none of these players. Instead they selected an 18-year old forward from Serbia who had a grand total of two years experience playing basketball. Sure, the player was seven feet tall, and as GM’s always say, you can’t teach height. Then again with forward Darko Milicic, it appears the Pistons couldn’t teach skill either.

Dumars’ selection of Milicic (now on his third NBA team) over Anthony (two-time All-Star), Bosh (career average of 19 points and nine rebounds a game) and Wade (2006 NBA Finals MVP and one of the sport’s ten best players when healthy) is in my opinion almost at the Bowie over Jordan level. Obviously none of the players selected are the Air’s heir, but that’s not all of what goes into the equation of a bad pick. Dumars, who as a player had many epic battles against Jordan, knew the history. He understood the risk of taking a foreign-born player who had never played a competitive game against somebody with equal skills. He realized that taking a team far in the NCAA Tournament, something that Anthony, Wade, Ford and Hinrich all had done, translates well to the NBA. Yet Dumars has been completely let off the hook by the Detroit fans, media and his fellow executives. To blow a pick this bad, Dumars should annually appear on the ‘Worst G.M.’s in basketball’ list. But instead, his name usually shows up on the Best list. Why is this?

The most obvious reason is because a year after the Darko pick the Pistons were NBA Champs. Dumars found the go-to scorer he needed to fill out the roster, trading two backup guards and a future first-round pick to acquire power forward Rasheed Wallace, putting together an almost perfect starting lineup. Teamed with fellow big man, the offensively challenged Ben Wallace, the Pistons shocked the Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals, bringing Motown their first championship since Dumars himself was a key player on the 1990 title squad. Since then, the Pistons have appeared in the Finals one more time - they lost in seven games to San Antonio in 2005 - and have been to the Eastern Conference Finals every year since 2003.

But compared with what Portland accomplished after the Bowie pick, it is not that extraordinary. No, the Blazers never won a championship, but they did appear in the playoffs 21 consecutive seasons, from 1983 through 2003. (Note: Portland got the number two pick to draft Bowie in ‘84 in a trade with the Indiana Pacers) Led by shooting guard Clyde Drexler - yes, the Blazers already did have a Hall of Fame caliber SG at the time of the ‘84 draft - Portland did wind up making two NBA Finals in that twenty year span. First, in 1990 they lost to Detroit, led by Dumars. And in 1992 they fell to the Bulls and Jordan. Karma just happens to work that way.

Another reason Dumars doesn’t get the blame that he probably deserves is because it is so difficult to compare any player from any era to Michael Jordan, much less the group of players who came into the league immediately after MJ’s retirement. Jordan dominated the sport in every conceivable statistic, from points per game to TV ratings to pointless Ahmad Rashad halftime interviews; it is impossible for a player today to duplicate it. The closest would be Kobe Bryant, but even the Lakers star still has a long way to go (say winning a championship as his team’s best player) before he can even come close to Jordan’s pantheon level.

The counter to that is Milicic might be even a worse player than Bowie was. Bowie played more career games, 511 to Darko’s 276, and that’s far from the only statistic he leads in. Bowie averaged more points (10.9 to 5.5), rebounds (7.5 to 4) and blocks (1.8 to 1.3) than Milicic has thus far in his career, all important statistics for centers. And it is also necessary to point out the reason that Bowie’s career never took off was due to injuries while Milicic hasn’t been successful because he just downright is not a good basketball player.

Asking ‘what if?’ is always interesting, because there are no wrong answers. What if Portland had passed on Bowie and taken Jordan in ‘84; how would the NBA have changed? Would the duo of MJ and Drexler been as successful as Jordan and Scottie Pippen were in Chicago? Do the Bulls, who probably would have selected Charles Barkley at number three, ever win it all, something Sir Charles never did as a 76er, Sun or Rocket? And how about guys like Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing and Reggie Miller, players who came into the league after ‘84 and were constantly denied championships by Jordan’s Bulls?

24 years later, almost the same questions could be brought up about the ‘03 draft. What if Detroit took D-Wade instead of Milicic? Do the Pistons and Heat still play each other in back-to-back Eastern Conference Championships or does Wade’s team switch make the difference? Does Milicic succeed by playing for a poor team instead of one attempting to win a trophy? And how much fun would the Pistons-Cavaliers games, already exciting and intense, be if Wade and LeBron James were guarding each other with the Eastern Conference title on the line?

Sports fans will never get to know. But that doesn’t mean we can’t imagine, pretending to be a general manager. And I’m guessing if you imagine hard enough, you can do a better job at drafting players than Joe Dumars has.

Tags: 1984 NBA Draft, 2003 NBA Draft, Carmelo Anthony, Chicago Bulls, Chris Bosh, Darko Milicic, Detroit Pistons, Dwyane Wade, Joe Dumars, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, NBA, Portland Trail Blazers, Sam Bowie

Eli Kaberon is a 2005 graduate of Evanston Township High School and currently is attending Columbia College in the loop, majoring in print journalism. A life-long fan of the Cubs, Bears and Bulls, Eli also works as a seat vendor at Wrigley Field and has sold hot dogs to everyone ranging from Bears tight end Greg Olsen to Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. His blog, the Hot Dog Guy, can be seen at http://wrigleyvendor.blogspot.com.

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5 Comments

1. As a Pistons fan I have definitely played the “what if” game, but the reason a bigger deal isn’t made of the Darko pick is because Joe D. has made far more good decisions then bad decisions. Also, I take exceptions to a lot of points you make in this article…I feel it’s pretty one sided. You say Darko “had a grand total of 2 years experience playing basketball”…that is not true. You make it sound like he only played basketball for 2 years before being drafted, but he played since he was a very young kid and had 2 years of playing in Europes top leagues before being drafted. Also, you don’t give an accurate take of how the prospects were viewed going into that draft. It’s easy to sit back now and say you could have taken Player A over Player B 5 years late. Before the draft Lebron was clear cut #1, and the majority of GM’s would have taken Darko over Carmelo (look at NBAdraft.net or Chad Ford’s articles on GM’s opinions going into the draft). No GM would have taken Wade/Bosh/Ford/Heinrick/Howard/etc. over Darko or Carmelo. To say Joe D should appear on the annual list of worst GM’s is one of the dumbest statements I’ve ever heard. How many great moves has Joe D made? Just a few…trading Stackhouse to get Rip, getting Chucky Atkins and B. Wallace in a sign and trade for G. Hill (he could have just let grant hill walk for nothing), the trade for R. Wallace when he only gave up 1 player who was actually part of the rotation, the decision not to match the contract B. Wallace signed with the Bulls, getting Chauncey Billups for the mid level exception….do you need anymore great moves? Why no mention of all quality draft picks he has made? Here are picks he’s made from spots 15-30 with everyone besides Rodney Stuckey being below pick 20: Rodney Stuckey, Jason Maxiel, Carlos Delfino, Tayshuan Prince, Aaron Afflalo. Let’s go into round 2 picks he’s made: Memhet Okur, Amir Johnson, Chiek Samb (you’ll know about him in a couple years). This was a very one sided article that neglected to note that most GM’s would have taken Darko second, that Joe D has made a lot of other quality picks even though the Pistons only have late 1st round picks and late 2nd round picks, and neglects all the other great decisions he’s made in regard to trades/signings.

   Comment by Jim on May 5, 2008

2. I appreciate that you’ve given some perspective to the Trail Blazers selection of Bowie in 1984. You mentioned that the Blazers had a future HOF guard in Drexler on the team (drafted in 1983). You failed to mention that the team also had All-Star Jim Paxson at guard also. Drafting a third guard for the same position didn’t make sense - especially since very few prognosticators viewed Jordan as the best SG ever to come along. That title came later.

   Adding Bowie (a passing Center) to a nucleus of Valentine, Paxson, Vandeweghe, Thompson with Drexler first off the bench was the right move at the time of the draft. Portland had just traded for All-Star and leading scorer Vandeweghe a few days prior to the draft.

   The drafting of Bowie wasn’t the mistake. Bowie’s injuries ultimately became the mistake. You can’t fault management for that one!!

   Comment by Brant B on May 5, 2008

3. This article is absolute trash.

   Comment by Aaron Moore on May 6, 2008

4. This is a fairly ridiculous comparison since you’re continually making references to Michael Jordan when the Pistons didn’t have the #1 pick.

   They had the #2 pick.

   A fair comparison would exist if the Pistons passed up Lebron James with the #1 pick. Instead they passed up Carmelo Anthony.

   That was the debate. Whether to go with Darko or Carmelo.

   How many championships has Denver won with Carmelo Anthony? He’s a very good player, but not on the same level of Jordan or even Lebron James.

   Denver got swept this year. So let’s be real for two seconds.

   In the end they ended up with Stuckey. So the final comparison, what they netted, was Stuckey versus Carmelo Anthony.

   And I think that will end up being pretty close. Dumars was able to find a bigger fool when it comes to Darko: Orlando.

   The greatest irony was that Stuckey sent Orlando home.

   Comment by Bob Smith on May 18, 2008

5. Milicic was the worst pick ever. Anthony right off a championship was the surest thing in the draft and could have gone 1st any other year or even that year. They threw away a sure thing and took the long shot. So so dumb. They had nothing to lose by taking Anthony.

   Comment by mike on May 27, 2008

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