How Michael Jordan Slipped To 3rd In NBA Draft Out Of UNC

Every NBA Draft contains its fair share of drama, but one that is consistently one of the wildest is the 1984 edition. That year, of course, featured two marquee players in center Hakeem Olajuwon and guard Michael Jordan.

Jordan is still widely considered the greatest player to ever touch a basketball, but during the draft, he was selected not only after Olajuwon, but also after another player. The Chicago Bulls finally scooped him up with the third overall selection. This article will examine why.

As one might expect, Jordan's time as a UNC Tar Heel was defined by success. While his stats as a freshman were nothing to write home about, UNC won the national championship, aided by Jordan's consistent availability and heavy minutes load.

Things really took off in Jordan's sophomore season. He jumped from scoring 13.5 points per game as a freshman to an even 20.0 while averaging 5.5 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game. Those numbers earned him a First Team All-American selection, establishing him as one of the five best college players in the country.

Improving on an All-American selection is no easy task, but Jordan managed to do so quite easily. While repeating that feat, he also earned the AP Player of the Year Award, the Wooden Award, and the Naismith Award. Even with his college success, there were some concerns about his NBA capabilities. Chicago general manager Rod Thorn stated, "His shooting was what we were concerned with. We didn't know what kind of shooter he was going to turn out to be.” Jordan shot 54.0% from the field in college, but the vast majority of his attempts came close to the rim, leading to questions about his ability to score outside of the paint. Aside from that, he was considered a complete prospect, and one worthy of a top-three pick.

There was only one other player who was widely considered a better prospect than Jordan, Houston Cougars center Hakeem Olajuwon. In his final year in college, Olajuwon established himself as the most dominant player in the nation, especially on defense. He averaged an incredible 5.6 blocks per game to go along with 16.8 points on a 67.5% field goal percentage and 13.8 rebounds. With numbers like those, it is no surprise that Olajuwon was considered the best prospect in the world, even above Jordan. 

The third overall pick took a long road to end up in Chicago's hands. The first roadblock was a controversy surrounding a regular-season game between the Bulls and the Houston Rockets. After a last-second game-winner gave the Rockets the win, Chicago appealed the result, arguing that Houston did not get the shot off in time. The appeal was quickly denied, but if the Bulls had won that appeal, they would have had the same record as the Dallas Mavericks, forcing a coin flip to determine who would pick third and fourth. Luckily, Chicago's appeal did not go anywhere, gifting the Bulls a massive blessing in disguise. 

Even though they avoided that coin flip, another helped land Jordan in the Windy City. The Portland Trail Blazers tied the Rockets for the worst record in the league, forcing them to flip a coin to determine the pick order in front of Chicago. The Rockets won, securing Olajuwon and giving the Blazers a chance to snag Jordan. Instead, Portland went with center Sam Bowie, who never won a single NBA award throughout his career. 

Things would have been drastically different if the Blazers had won the flip. They most likely would have selected Olajuwon, leaving the Rockets to select Jordan, who was considered a better prospect than Bowie by nearly every team in the league. Without either Olajuwon or Jordan available, there is no telling who the Bulls would have ended up with. But whoever it was would have been a far cry from Jordan.

It took a handful of fortunate events for Jordan to find his home as a Bull. First, without Olajuwon dominating the college basketball landscape, the guard would probably have been the first player off the board, creating legendary moments in Houston instead of Chicago. Second was the failed appeal, which, if successful, would have given the Bulls a 50% chance of choosing fourth overall instead of third. Finally came the third coin flip, the biggest stroke of luck of them all. If Portland had won, the Rockets would have snagged Jordan, leaving the Bulls with far worse options.

At the time, it may have seemed like Chicago had come up short on multiple occasions. In reality, those moments became a massive blessing that would change the history of the franchise and the NBA forever.