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- Posted on: Sun, 12/27/2009 - 2:31pm #11419
Disrespect_MeParticipant“When I drafted him, I said, ‘OK, we’re gonna get a good player here,'” said Rod Thorn,
the Nets president who was Chicago’s GM when the Bulls had the No. 3 pick in 1984.“I thought, he’ll come in and play and help us. But to think that he would be what he turned out to be? No way. No way.”
As great as his trade was for Jason Kidd, turning the Nets into a championship
contender for the first time, Thorn’s drafting of Jordan will always be his legacy as an NBA executive. Before the Nets took on
Detroit in the Meadowlands this past week, he sat at courtside and talked about the draft that changed the course of pro basketball history.
“Back then, the knock on Michael was that he couldn’t shoot the ball,”
Thorn recalled. “For a long time, that first season, he just drove the ballto the basket and he didn’t need a shot. But Michael was so smart, he learned from taking some mighty licks.
So he said, ‘I gotta get a jump shot,’ and he got one. But when we looked at him for the draft,
he was 195 pounds and 6-6, so he was kind of thin. So the biggest thing about him was, can he make a shot?
We wondered what kind of shooter he’d be.”Thorn could only go off of the tapes of Jordan he’d watched in Dean Smith’s office in Chapel Hill several months before the draft.
“Back then, you didn’t work guys out,” he said. “We never worked Michael out. But I was very good friends with Dean, and every year, I’d go down to North Carolina for two or three days and he would let me watch tapes of all the ACC players.
That’s how I scouted the entire league. Dean thought Michael would be a really good pro – a better pro player than a college player.”
After the tape sessions, Thorn went back to Chicago thinking he would draft Jordan. But if Jordan was gone, his plan was to take another Tar Heel player, forward Sam Perkins. Before making it final, Thorn decided to attend the SEC Tournament to get a first-hand look at Auburn’s Charles Barkley.
“Alabama threw a zone at Charles and he had six points, fouled out and played an awful game. He couldn’t make an outside shot,” Thorn said. “So I left there thinking, ‘How is this guy ever going to be a big-time player in pro ball? He’s just too small to do what he was doing in college in the NBA.'”
But it worked out just the way Thorn wanted. Olajuwon went first to Houston, Portland took Sam Bowie second and Jordan went to the Bulls.
“When training camp started, I was not there for our first practice,” Thorn said. “After they finished, I got a call from Bill Blair, who was an assistant coach, and he said, ‘Rod, you didn’t screw this draft up. This guy is pretty good.’ Well, you know how coaches are.
They just don’t say that kind of stuff about a rookie. So I felt pretty good. Then the next day, I got a call from Kevin Loughery, our head coach, and he said, ‘This guy is pretty good.’ So I said, ‘Wait a minute, he must be pretty dad-gone good if Kevin is calling me, too.'”
“Pretty dad-gone good” turned into much, much more, not so long after Thorn left Chicago in 1985. As Jordan grew into an iconic figure, known the world over, he took the league to unparalleled heights as the Bulls won six titles in eight seasons.
“We had the Bird and Magic era and they were wonderful to watch, with that great rivalry of theirs,” Jackson said. “But Michael Jordan …”
The former Bulls coach paused, looking for the right words to sum it all up. Finally, he smiled and said, “When Michael Jordan played the game, you couldn’t take your eyes off him.”
0 - Posted on: Sun, 12/27/2009 - 2:35pm #241408
Disrespect_MeParticipantNBA Comparison: N/A
enjoy I need to work out
0 - Posted on: Sun, 12/27/2009 - 2:51pm #241413
seecocoaballParticipantBulls management could of kept that last time together even longer.
0 - Posted on: Sun, 12/27/2009 - 3:42pm #241423
the I in winParticipanthow many times is portland going to take a big man over a great perimeter player?
0- Posted on: Sun, 12/27/2009 - 4:50pm #241431
gregoden08Participantomg dude stop they had Clyde….Come on now.
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- Posted on: Sun, 12/27/2009 - 7:01pm #241456
RICO 1981ParticipantHmmm? do you think KD would be KD if he went to Portland? I mean he would be competing for shots with B-roy and L.A., not have the ball as much. Or do you think portland would have made him the man out of college?
0 - Posted on: Tue, 05/10/2016 - 8:19pm #1061157
kumarsandeepParticipantomg dude stop they had Clyde….Come on now. Very nice Register.com Coupons Find new register.com Coupons
0 - Posted on: Tue, 05/10/2016 - 8:19pm #1061035
kumarsandeepParticipantomg dude stop they had Clyde….Come on now. Very nice Register.com Coupons Find new register.com Coupons
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