Il PIÙ FORTE a NON AVER mai giocato in NBA ||| LEN BIAS e il DRAFT MALEDETTO

⚫ Subscribe to join the discussion⚫    / @gianlucafraula   🔴 Instagram 🔴   / cronache_di_basket     / gianlucafraula   The GREATEST NEVER TO HAVE played in the NBA ||| LEN BIAS and the CURSED DRAFT If I told you that in the mid-1980s, there was an NCAA prospect capable of challenging Michael Jordan's dominance, would you believe it? A guard who played like MJ, with that same tenacity, but taller and with more impact from beyond the arc? With a jumper considered by teammates and opponents to be superior in quality to Jordan's? An extraordinary hybrid between the basketball of the 1980s and what we would see in the decades to come. Probably not, you'd think I'm crazy, because this player has never been seen in the NBA. You'd only be partially right. Because that player actually existed. But he died two days after being drafted. "During those ACC years, the two most dominant players I saw were Michael Jordan and Len Bias." (Coach K) Fall 1984. The Boston Celtics decide to indulge the Seattle Supersonics' ruthless pursuit, handing over Gerald Henderson to the Emerald City franchise. Henderson, a combo guard they had drafted in 1979, had etched his name in Celtics history with a legendary steal from James Worthy in Game 2 of the 1984 Finals, which Boston went on to win. The Lakers were up 113-111 with 18 seconds left before Henderson's deft steal, which had made the most comfortable layup. In exchange, Boston gets a first-round pick from the Sonics for the 1986 draft. And the Sonics do poorly, terribly. The 31-51 final score drops Seattle to eleventh place in the Western Conference, the second-worst record in the West. The lottery decides the top eight draft spots. Representing the Boston Celtics, with his ever-present cigar, is Red Auerbach. It's not yet the era of basketballs, but the team representatives themselves hand out a logo from a giant transparent sphere, thus establishing the order of the top eight spots. New York doesn't advance beyond the number 6 pick, while the Celtics, the reigning NBA champions, find themselves in the top two. Auerbach laughs and puffs on his cigar, Boston gets the number 2 pick, with the Sixers winning the lottery. It's an incredible result, because the top two picks go to two powerhouses: Philadelphia, in fact, stopped just short of the Conference Finals, losing in seven games to Milwaukee, and rose to this high thanks to a pick secured in a trade with the Los Angeles Clippers. But the Sixers' board will make a mess over the summer, trading the number 1 pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Roy Hinson, coming off an excellent season with the Cavs that will never be replicated.