Tag: Rod Thorn

But Rod Thorn, a longtime NBA executive …

But Rod Thorn, a longtime NBA executive who played a key role in assembling the Dream Team roster for the 1992 Olympics, denied ever speaking with Jordan about keeping Thomas off the team. “There was never anything in my conversation with [Jordan] that had to do with Isiah Thomas, period,” Thorn said Wednesday during an interview with ESPN’s Golic & Wingo. “He said, ‘I’ll do it.’ … Isiah’s name never came up during that conversation. And he never backtracked and said he didn’t want to do it from that time on, to those of us in the NBA office. “Now, if that in fact happened, then it happened with somebody else; because when I talked to him, he ended up saying he would definitely do it.”

76ers, Mavs tried to trade for Michael Jordan on draft night

So, Thorn wanted to know if one of them …

So, Thorn wanted to know if one of them would fall to him and Trail Blazers GM Stu Inman showed the Bulls his hand. “Stu Inman… told me a month before the draft that if Sam Bowie passed the physical they were going to take him,” Thorn recalled. “About a week before the draft, I called Inman and asked him had Bowie taken the physical and he said ‘yes.’ And I asked him did he pass it and he said ‘yes.’” The Bulls knew a month in advance of the draft that Jordan would fall to them if Houston took Olajuwon.

Former Bulls GM Rod Thorn, who selected …

Former Bulls GM Rod Thorn, who selected Michael Jordan No. 3 overall in the 1984 NBA Draft, said Chicago would have picked legendary Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon over Jordan if they had the chance. Thorn was general manager of the Bulls from 1978 until 1985. In an interview on Sunday’s “The Last Dance” documentary on ESPN regarding Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls, Thorn said: Olajuwon would have been first by anybody who picked, including me.

Rod Thorn: Bulls would have picked Olajuwon over Jordan in 1984 draft

“Olajuwon would have been first by anybody who picked, including me,” the former Chicago GM said on Sunday’s documentary premiere.

Former Bulls GM Rod Thorn, who selected Michael Jordan No. 3 overall in the 1984 NBA Draft, said Chicago would have picked legendary Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon over Jordan if they had the chance.

Thorn was general manager of the Bulls from 1978 until 1985.

In an interview on Sunday’s “The Last Dance” documentary on ESPN regarding Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls, Thorn said:

Olajuwon would have been first by anybody who picked, including me.

The Bulls almost had the chance. In the preceding 1983-84 season, the Bulls went 27-55, while the Rockets were two games better at 29-53.

But back then, before the NBA’s draft lottery system had come into existence, the league decided its top draft pick via a coin flip between the team with the worst record in the Western Conference and the corresponding squad with the worst mark in the Eastern Conference.

The Indiana Pacers, whose 1984 pick had already been traded to Portland, were one game worse than Chicago at 26-56. That meant they were in a coin flip with the Rockets, rather than the Bulls. Houston won the flip and took Olajuwon, while the Trail Blazers infamously took big man Sam Bowie with the No. 2 pick. That left Jordan available at No. 3 for the Bulls.

As it turns out, everyone but the Blazers ended up happy. Both Jordan and Olajuwon went on to win multiple championships and were eventually inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Jordan averaged 30.1 points (49.7% FG), 6.2 rebounds, and 5.3 steals per game over 15 NBA seasons, while Olajuwon tallied 21.8 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 3.1 blocks per game in 18 seasons. Between the two of them, Jordan and Olajuwon combined for eight consecutive titles (and each accompanying NBA Finals MVP award) from 1991 through 1998.

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But in the final months of his life, …

But in the final months of his life, Stern stood tall over every staggering thing he had accomplished. Thorn and his wife Peggy joined Stern and his wife Dianne for dinner a few weeks before the commissioner suffered his December brain hemorrhage at a Manhattan restaurant. “He seemed in such good spirits and health,” Thorn said. “He just had a great look about him. David was always so proud of the league, and of what [his successor] Adam Silver had done. Some of these guys that leave big jobs have a hard time staying away, but I think David did a good job of not trying to take away from what Adam was doing.