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32 days 'till camp

theNBAnerd said:
the jazz could have drafted magic johnson (whose #32 is retired by the lakers) with the first overall pick, but they had given their unrestricted pick to the lakers as compensation for signing free agent gail goodrich, who turned 32 in his final laker season. his career minute average was 32.5. magic went on to have a long career with several all-star appearances, the last of which was his all-star MVP performance when he was 32.
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Actually, the Jazz could have had the opportunity to participate in the coin toss to decide the first pick. Before the Lottery started in 1985, the league took the worst team from each conference and had a coin flip to decide who drafted first. Had the Jazz kept the pick, they would have been the worst team in the Eastern Conference and the Bulls were the worst in the West. Something tells me that Larry O'Brien, who strongly opposed the Jazz move to Salt Lake City, might have "influenced" the coin toss to route Magic Johnson to Chicago instead of SLC.
 
YB85 said:
Actually, the Jazz could have had the opportunity to participate in the coin toss to decide the first pick. Before the Lottery started in 1985, the league took the worst team from each conference and had a coin flip to decide who drafted first. Had the Jazz kept the pick, they would have been the worst team in the Eastern Conference and the Bulls were the worst in the West. Something tells me that Larry O'Brien, who strongly opposed the Jazz move to Salt Lake City, might have "influenced" the coin toss to route Magic Johnson to Chicago instead of SLC.
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actually, we won the coin toss and had the first overall pick, but it was conveyed to LA as compensation for the goodrich signing:

August 5, 1976: Magic Johnson traded by the New Orleans Jazz (as a 1979 1st round draft pick) with a 1977 1st round draft pick (Kenny Carr), a 1978 1st round draft pick (Freeman Williams) and a 1980 2nd round draft pick (Sam Worthen) to the Los Angeles Lakers for a 1977 2nd round draft pick (Essie Hollis) and a 1978 1st round draft pick (Jack Givens). This exchange was arranged as compensation for Utah signing veteran free agent Gail Goodrich on 19 July 1976.
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theNBAnerd said:
actually, we won the coin toss and had the first overall pick, but it was conveyed to LA as compensation for the goodrich signing:
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Well, actually the Bulls lost the coin flip to the Lakers.

https://lakersblog.latimes.com/lake...kers-good-luck-charm-under-bill-sharman-.html

We're probably picking nits in this but it's interesting to think of what might have been had things been different in so many ways. From my understanding, these coin tosses were done as conference calls and that is why I always wondered if Larry O'Brien would influence the toss had it been the Jazz and Bulls. More to consider in the "What If" world: What if the Celtics couldn't sign Larry Bird before his deadline and he went into the 1979 draft? What if the coin came up "heads" and the Bulls won, thus probably changing their history and ability to draft Michael Jordan?
 
YB85 said:
Well, actually the Bulls lost the coin flip to the Lakers.

https://lakersblog.latimes.com/lake...kers-good-luck-charm-under-bill-sharman-.html

We're probably picking nits in this but it's interesting to think of what might have been had things been different in so many ways. From my understanding, these coin tosses were done as conference calls and that is why I always wondered if Larry O'Brien would influence the toss had it been the Jazz and Bulls. More to consider in the "What If" world: What if the Celtics couldn't sign Larry Bird before his deadline and he went into the 1979 draft? What if the coin came up "heads" and the Bulls won, thus probably changing their history and ability to draft Michael Jordan?
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agreed. most of the stories i've opted to share in these countdown threads are those fun "what-if" trades.... near misses of guys who almost played for the jazz, or could have played for the jazz, or did play for the jazz but before/after their all-star primes. i also like the long trade trains where you realize over the series of transactions that martin muursep actually netted us kyle korver, or how a second round draft pick and a little bit of cap space turned into clark + handlogten, who turned into hayward, tomic and phase two of ostertag. those stories fascinate me.
 
A good "what if" #32 for this thread could have been Kevin McHale. In 1980, the Jazz had the #2 pick, having lost the coin toss to Boston. The Celtics made what I believe to be the greatest trade in NBA history when they sent that pick to Golden State for Robert Parish and the #3 pick in the draft. Everyone knew Joe Barry Carroll was going #1. Frank Layden, then the Jazz GM, wanted to take Kevin McHale #2 but Sam Battistone wanted a marquee name for the struggling Jazz and directed Frank to select Darrell Griffith. The rest is history.
 
YB85 said:
A good "what if" #32 for this thread could have been Kevin McHale. In 1980, the Jazz had the #2 pick, having lost the coin toss to Boston. The Celtics made what I believe to be the greatest trade in NBA history when they sent that pick to Golden State for Robert Parish and the #3 pick in the draft. Everyone knew Joe Barry Carroll was going #1. Frank Layden, then the Jazz GM, wanted to take Kevin McHale #2 but Sam Battistone wanted a marquee name for the struggling Jazz and directed Frank to select Darrell Griffith. The rest is history.
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dr dunkenstein over kevin mchale... interesting one.

griff was a better rookie but mchale had a much better career. then it makes you wonder if the move would have made us too good in the short term to have a chance at karl and john.

we all know the tenuous financial position of the jazz in those days... maybe they NEEDED a sexier name to sell tickets, same way they needed 3M in cash more than they needed dominique wilkins. who knows.
 
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