1983 NBA Draft? #1 and #3 picks - WOW.

yea about the Coin Flip. Imagine we had lost the coin flip. We may have had more luck. We could have drafted Jordan cus i dont think we would have taken that Bowie guy. Imagine how our team would look like today. Everything would be so different. I mean im not saying Olajuwon was bad but Jordan has been dubbed the greatest player of all time

 

You're right that is pretty amazing we could have had he and Hakeem all along and won even more titles with Sampson, Glyde and Dream instead of losing to the Celtics that year. Hopefully this year will be a solid draft for us in Clutch City.

 

Remember that Jordan never won without Scottie. But Jordan and Glyde would have been awfully nice to have.

 

If we had taken Clyde, there's no doubt in my mind we would have had one of the best teams of the 80's. I mean we could have been better equiped and been on the same plateu as the Lakers and the Celtics. But do you remember when it came out that the Bulls wanted to trade us Jordan for Sampson straight up during Jordan's second season I think? Man, that would have been the dynasty to end all dynasties. Jordan and Dream would have just dominated if they had played together. The best inside outside game you could possibly imagine.

 

We all wanted Clyde as he was a local hero. However McCray was a tereffic college player. He was the leader of that great Louisville "doctors of Dunk" team.

He was very good with the Rockets, and I suspect was better then Clyde for the first year or two. Who knew Clyde would develope such a great shot. In college it was all about dunks and moves to the hoop. Well, plus great defense.

McCray impressed me on fast break. Our team or theirs, no matter who was breaking, McCray was always there, offense and defensive end. If I recall correctly, he had a personal trajedy and was never the same. I think a son or brother died or something.

 

I was massively disappointed we didn't take Clyde. Rodney McCray was a dependable player. Rashard Lewis seems a bit like Clyde part two, but it's early, who knows what kind of career Rashard will have.

 

i remember reading an article years ago about how the rockets could have had hakeem, clyde, and jordan in 1984!!!

apparently, the blazers offered the rockets drexler and their #2 pick for Ralph Sampson just before the 1984 draft, but houston turned it down...

just imagine... using the #1 pick on dream and the #2 on MJ... what a dynasty we could have had in houston!!!

 

That's it, I'm going to work on a time machine right now. I suppose the only problem is how all 3 of these guys would share the ball.

 

My recollection is that the Larry Bird rule was established before this trio would need to be resigned. There surely would have been enough ticket sale revenues to meet big slary demands given Drexler's image and hometown hero status. Not to mention winning!

IMO, Clyde could have played SF (point forward) on a team which included Dream and MJ. Even if they ultimately couldn't play well together, could you imagine the offers the Rockets could have fielded for MJ to re-stock a team that already had Akeem & Glyde?

Hindsight is a wonderful 20-20 thing.

 

Actually, the Rocks had another opportunity to obtain Jordan.

Supposedly, in Dream\MJs 2nd year? (the year of MJ's foot injury, I think), the Bulls wanted to deal MJ for Sampson, but the Rocks declined.

They had one of the league's best young duos, and you can't really blame the Rocks for not wanting to break up the 'Twin Towers.'

On another note, Ralph Sampson was truly one of the more tragic players in NBA history. If only he had stayed healthy.

 

i don't blame them for not making the MJ/sampson trade... i mean the twin towers did seem to be the future of the NBA, at the time...

the larry bird clause didn't come into affect until the early 90s, I believe.... therfore houston could have locked those guys up (ticket sales and paraphanelia would have more than paid for it...)

i think drexler would have been moved to SF, jordan at SG, and hakeem at C... actually, hakeem might not have been as great an offensive force with jordan and drexler scoring lights out... maybe he would have been more the dikembe mutombo type player.... rebounds and blocks??? just a thought

 

I think tragic for Ralph is a bit of an overstatement. Maybe promising career cut short. I would reserve tragic for something like Orlando Cepeda dying in the plane crash helping poor people. Ralph's problems were physical and out of his control, and he didn't lose his dignity. He wanted to make a comeback last year or two years ago, but apparently, the Shawn Bradleys and Ostertags could outplay him, still.

 

Rodney McCray's daughter died of a brian tumor, I think. It was a few years before the Rockets traded him for Thorpe. It was sad news indeed because Rodney seemed like a nice guy. Losing a young child has a way of changing anyone's life, I'd imagine.

I've seen Rodney around Houston the last couple of years, so he may still be living in town. In hindsight, passing on Clyde was obviously a mistake. But the fact was that Drexler wasn't that good in college. His outside shot came later. As it was, the Rockets weren't the only team to pass on him. Ten other teams passed on Clyde, too. Who should be really upset are the Kings, who took Ennis Whatley right before the Blazers took Clyde. Whatley did nothing in his time in the NBA.

 

I know that happened to roberto clemente, did that happen to cepeda too? I'm not being sarcastic, i seriously don't know....

 

Oops. My alzheimer's kicking in again. Getting my Latin American player's names all mixed up.