i once read that back in Ojajuwon rookie days, the rockets got offerd a deal of drexler + draft pick (would have been jordan) for sampson. than houston would have Olajuwon jordan drexler. how many champioships would they have now? about 10 would they beat the celtics dynasty of bill russel?
That would have been unbelievable. If Sampson could have stayed healthy, we could have won a few championships with the twin towers too. I would take those twin towers over Tim Duncan and worthless David Robinson any day.
There's no guarantee Drexler and Jordan would have became the players they were with a dominant center clogging the lane in their formative years.
Who cares. You'd still have Jordan. And if Jordan didn't become what he became because of Olajuwon in the middle, then who cares, you'd still have Olajuwon. And if they both didn't become what they became because of the other, then who cares, because it never happened. It never happened. Damn.
Just to pour a little more salt on the wound... In 1985, the Rockets drafted Steve Harris, a soon-to-be-forgotten SG over Terry Porter, who averaged over 9 assists a game for the Blazers. Just imagine a PG like Porter distributing to the likes of Olajuwon, Jordan, and Drexler (Of course, we drafted Harris because we already had a great PG in John Lucas, but we all know how he ended up.)
We could have had Drexler with out ever trading for him if we would have just drafted him instead of Rodney McCray the same year we drafted Sampson. I am still bitter over that.
If they traded Sampson, they would need a PF, not another SG which Drexler played. So we could have had Barkley, Drexler, and Olajuwon, the big three, for their carrers instead of the last hurrah. Or we could have draftred Sam Bowie. You just never know how these things will turn out.
