NBA History: In The 1988 NBA Season, The Los Angeles Clippers Attempted To Trade For Michael Jordan. If This Trade Happened, Would Jordan Be Regarded As The GOAT?

In the 1984 NBA season, basketball was slowly starting to get more and more global attention. With Larry Bird and Magic Johnson saving the NBA by having their healthy rivalry, the basketball community had something exciting to look forward too in many years to come. However, the beginning of the 1984 season was quite a historic season that NBA fans were not ready to fully appreciate due to the NBA draft and how talented it was. The 1984 NBA draft is regarded as one of the most significant drafts in NBA history. With players such as Charles Barkley, John Stockton, and Hakeem Olajuwon, who are now all Hall of Famers, the 1984 draft was arguably the first time NBA fans got to witness such a stacked draft. Despite the already present talent that was evident in the 1984 draft, the Chicago Bulls lucked out and drafted arguably the greatest player ever to play the game being Michael Jordan. 

Jordan was the third pick in 1984 draft behind Hakeem Olajuwon (who went first) and Sam Bowie (who went second) Even though the Houston Rockets managed to draft a top-five center in NBA history, the Portland Trailblazers didn’t have the same luck. As a result, Michael Jordan would be selected third and would be the biggest draft steal in NBA history, considering how great of a player he was. If Jordan went to Houston or Portland, he would have most likely dominated there and would have won championships wherever he went. However, Chicago is where his new home was. Jordan was excited to play with the Bulls as he looked to elevate a low market team while also popularizing it by displaying his talent on and off the court. As history unravels itself, Jordan fulfilled his goals and gave the Chicago Bulls six championships while also granting them the crown for drafting the greatest player to ever play the game. Even though Jordan would later play Baseball and play for the Washington Wizards, Jordan still racked up a good enough resume not only to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer but also to be known as the GOAT (greatest of all time) in his respected sport, and no I don’t mean Baseball. However, there was a time in history where the Los Angeles Clippers, the younger brother of the Lakers, had a chance to trade up into the draft and take Michael Jordan from the Chicago Bulls. To make matters even more insane, the Clippers tried to once again trade for Jordan in 1988, where they almost succeeded. 

The Clippers during this time were at best a lottery team which meant that they had no stars to trade away for Jordan but instead had an abundance of draft picks to offer the Bulls. Chicago was inclined to doing this trade as they felt that Michael Jordan’s style of play would not be good enough to win a championship even though Jordan was coming off a season where he won the league MVP and defensive player of the year. I’m not too sure what the Bulls were thinking off during that time especially if you had a player who was coming off a season where he won as many accolades as he did. Chicago was very close to closing out this deal due to the Bulls attaining two of the top six draft selections in the 1988 NBA draft. The best players that came out of this draft was, Rik Smits, Danny Manning, Mitch Richmond, Hersey Hawkins, and Dan Majerle who was picked much later in the draft. Although those players are all All-Star calibre players, if you combined all of their accolades and achievements, chances are that none of them would even come close to matching Micheal Jordan. Yet, due to the concerns that the Bulls had with Jordan, they felt inclined to make this trade happen and were very close to pulling the trigger to attain most likely Rik Smits as they needed a center at the time. However, reality hit the Bulls organization and, as a result, realized that Michael Jordan was too good of a talent to throw away. Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls would later win six titles and would have most likely won more if Jordan never left basketball to play Baseball. However, what if the Chicago Bulls traded away Micheal Jordan to the Clippers? Would Jordan be better or worse? 

In the 1989-90 season, the Clippers were a lottery team that had two young players too work with being Ron Harper and Charles Smith, who both averaged 20+ points per game. The young duo of Harper and Smith did look promising, but, failed to make playoffs as they only won 30 games. However, in this fantasy, Michael Jordan is apart of the Los Angeles Clippers and would have most likely led this team to the playoffs considering that he averaged 31 points that season and had a very good chance in winning league MVP. With the trio of Michael Jordan, Ron Harper, and Charles Smith, this team would have made playoffs. Considering how incredible Jordan was, I believe the Clippers would have been a top three-seed and would have most likely made the semi-conference finals where they would have lost to the Spurs with David Robinson. As great as Jordan was, he didn’t find playoff success until the 1990’s where the Detriot Pistons regressed as an organization. During this time, the Pistons were on top and would win back to back championships, which ignited a spark in Michael Jordan to be better. However, by Jordan being on the Clippers, he didn’t have to worry as much about the juggernauts in the East and instead had to worry about what the Western Conference had to offer.

In the 1990-91 season, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls would win their first-ever championship and would go on to achieving the first-ever three-peat since Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics. Michael Jordan and the Bulls were the teams to beat during the early ’90s until Jordan would decide to retire from basketball. However, in this world, Jordan would be faced with a problem. One of the biggest reasons why Jordan was so successful throughout his career was due to Scottie Pippen. Pippen was the perfect complement to Jordan as he was a defensive orientated player that knew and accepted his role on the team. Scottie knew that he would never be the face of the Bulls and instead just looked to be the perfect sidekick to Jordan and, as a result, would end up winning six championships. However, in this fantasy, Jordan and Pippen would never have been teammates in their prime because Jordan would have been traded away. Pippen would go from being a sidekick to Jordan to now being the face of the Bulls organization and would have most likely have remained there as they had prospects like Rik Smits who the Bulls would have drafted from those Clipper draft picks. This means that Jordan would lack a star teammate and instead would have to work with Charles Smith and Ron Harper, who were both great players but nothing near Scottie Pippen. 

This changes history as a whole. With the Bulls dynasty never existing, other teams such as the Utah Jazz, Seattle Super-Sonics, New-York Knicks, Houston Rockets, Phoenix Suns, and even the Los Angeles Lakers who had James Worthy as their star player would all have higher chances to win a championship. Although I do believe the Clippers would look to trade for a second All-Star calibre player, I don’t see the Clippers winning three championships in a row due to the simple fact that they don’t have a compliment player to Jordan like Scottie Pippen. Instead, the Knicks, Sonics, Rockets, and Jazz would be the faces of the decade and the NBA as a whole, and I believe that these teams would be the most successful. When looking at history, Patrick Ewing and the New York Knicks would dominate every team that they would face except Micheal Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. In this fantasy, Patrick Ewing would never have to face Jordan in his conference and would have most likely been the face of the Eastern Conference. Although the Rockets did win two championships when Jordan left the NBA, I believe that the Rockets would be the best team (for now) during the ’90s. At the same time, the Utah Jazz and the Seattle Super-Sonics would have also won a championship due to both teams making the finals numerous times where they would fall to Micheal Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. The NBA would have been different and more balanced if Jordan got traded to the Clippers. Yet, I believe that Jordan’s career would have been turbulent but would have potentially won a championship, but that’s a stretch, in my opinion. As great as Jordan was, he also needed help and judging from how horrible the Clippers organization was at managing and attaining players, I don’t see the Clippers being successful with Jordan. However, would Jordan still leave basketball to play Baseball?

One of the main reasons why Jordan left the NBA was due to him already having a great resume and wanting to pursue Baseball. With three championships, various All-Star appearances and a couple of MVP’s under his belt, Jordan would leave the game as a first-ballot Hall of Famer and one of the greatest players ever to play the game. However, in this fantasy world, Jordan would have won MVP’s but would have a high chance of not winning an NBA championship. Rather than leaving the NBA to play Baseball, I believe that Jordan would join Patrick Ewing and the New York Knicks for the fact that Jordan, in real life, was very interested in joining them. In the real world, Jordan wanted to sign with a team that could contend for a championship and also pay him a considerable amount of money. The Knicks offered him an insane contract at the time and Jordan was about to sign with them until the Bulls swooped in and offered Jordan a better deal. In the fantasy world, the Knicks would have offered him the same contract, and instead of declining it, Jordan would play alongside Patrick Ewing, where they would be the face of the NBA for the next years to come. With the duo of Ewing and Jordan, this team would end up winning 3 to 4 championships together as there was no other team to match them except the Utah Jazz. Instead of the Jazz and Bulls matching up in the finals almost every year (at least that’s how it felt), it would have been Knicks vs Jazz, which would have been incredible. I believe that the Knicks would win every season, which entails that both Ewing and Jordan would win their first championships together. 

In the end, Jordan would win championships but not with the Clippers, but with any team, he would have signed with in the 1994-95 season. Rather than leaving the NBA to play Baseball, I believe that Jordan and his competitive nature would have wanted to first win a few championships in the NBA and then leave to play Baseball where he would never go back to basketball. Instead of winning six championships, I see Jordan winning 3 to 4 with Patrick Ewing, and maybe some might argue with the Clippers, but I don’t see that happening due to how poorly managed that franchise was. The most significant loss in this entire fantasy is, the NBA would have never got to witness the duo of Pippen and Jordan and instead would have been one of the greatest what-if stories as I believe that Pippen would end up being a superstar. With Jordan being a Clipper, where would Scottie Pippen rank and would he have won a championship with Rik Smits and the Chicago Bulls?