Back in 1984, the NBA Draft was a who's who of basketball royalty, with the greatest of all time, Michael Jordan, supplemented by the likes of Charles Barkley, John Stockton, and Hakeem Olajuwon. All of whom became Hall of Famers.
One name that does stand out, however, for all the wrong reasons, is the man who sealed the second pick, behind Olajuwon and before Jordan. That man was Sam Bowie, a 7ft 1in center who had come off the back of a brilliant senior year at college in which he helped guide the University of Kentucky to the final four of the 1984 NCAA tournament.
Michael Jordan's career highlights (selected)
6x NBA Champion
6× NBA Finals MVP
5× NBA Most Valuable Player
14× NBA All-Star
3× NBA All-Star Game MVP
10× All-NBA First Team
10× NBA scoring champion
3× NBA steals leader
2× NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion
In hindsight, it's easy to slate any decision made before picking Jordan, including that of the Houston Rockets picking Olajuwon, who himself won multiple NBA championships in 17 years with the franchise. But the talk has always been of the Portland Trail Blazers picking up Bowie as the number two pick.
Teams have often dominated the NBA by lining up with big centers. The likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, and Bull Russell all influenced their teams' success. So, signing a player of Bowie's calibre wasn't, at the time, seen as the mistake it is now. But given the struggles he went through, particularly early in his career, Bowie will always be tarnished with the title of the worst draft pick in NBA history.
'Worst Draft Pick in US Sports History'
Sam Bowie never backed up being selected second in the draft
At the end of the 1980-81 season, doctors discovered a stress fracture in Bowie's left tibia which ended up taking almost two years to recover from. Although he returned for the 1983-84 season, and found form which led to his draft, he knew he wasn't physically right. Bowie hid a lot of his health problems from the Blazers in order to not jeopardise his career.
"I can still remember them taking a little mallet, and when they would hit me on my left tibia, and 'I don't feel anything' I would tell 'em," Bowie said in ESPN's documentary Going Big. "But deep down inside, it was hurting. If what I did was lying and what I did was wrong, at the end of the day, when you have loved ones that have some needs, I did what any of us would have done."
Michael Jordan in a Chicago Bulls jersey with a silhouette of Robert Parish with a background of an NBA indoor court and training facility Related
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Bowie did go on to represent the New Jersey Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers in an 11-year career, and although he didn't reach the heights of other members of the famous '84 draft, he still performed to a decent level. However, this doesn't help deflect the fact that he was picked ahead of MJ.
"Deep down inside, I physically wasn't what these guys were," Bowie said, regarding sitting beside the likes of Jordan, Barkley, and Olajuwon on the night of the draft.