Former Boston Celtics point guard Dana Barros is watching the new ESPN Michael Jordan documentary “The Last Dance” like the rest of us — but unlike the rest of us, he’s got a very different connection to its story.
Drafted out of Boston College, Barros has always had strong ties to the northeast — but he very nearly was part of that Chicago Bulls franchise ahead of the “last dance” season if not for an unexpected turn his career took just as it got started.
Evidently, the Bulls front office was impressed with Barros as a college prospect, and general manager Jerry Krause and coach Doug Collins invited the Boston native to lunch, where they told the young guard they planned to select him.
Dana Barros was in Chicago on NBA draft day in 1989 to meet with the Bulls. The BC star left thinking he'd be teammates with Michael Jordan.
Then the Sonics took him – two picks before the Bulls could.
Barros never dwelled on it, but he always wondered: https://t.co/q3QxFRmmMM
— Steve Hewitt (@steve_hewitt) May 2, 2020
Barros was of course elated to have a chance to play alongside Jordan, and told all his close friends and family about it.
Then, the Seattle Supersonics drafted him first.
Despite having no other meetings with teams as a projected late first-round selection, the Sonics had decided to pull the trigger on Barros with no workouts or even meeting, foiling Barros hoped-for landing.
“I kind of looked to the TV [and asked], ‘What did he just say?'” related Barros via the Boston Herald’s Steve Hewett.
“I literally wanted to throw the TV against the wall, you know what I mean? Like, what? It was kind of like that before it really hit me that I was still in the NBA … I look back on it, I’m like I was in Chicago. If I had two more picks, I could have had six rings. So I look at it from a different aspect of it, what could have been for me.”
“I don’t look at it in terms of I wish it was different,” Barros explained, clarifying his position on the unexpected turn of events.
Celtics, NBC Sports Boston to extend 'Classic Celtics' series https://t.co/m3izWrLQOJ via @thecelticswire
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) May 1, 2020
“It was just kind of funny. It was like a bad joke played on me the whole draft. It was kind of ironic and funny at the same time. But I don’t take it that seriously,” he added.
Barros would go on to have an excellent career with the Sonics, Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons, returning to Boston to play a single game in the 2003-04 season so he could retire a Celtic.
He might have ended up on the wrong path to accumulate rings, but he did end up beating Jordan with Boston in Game 1 of that “last dance” season — one of many things that has the native son still beloved on a team that’s hung plenty of banners of their own.
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