Ultimate bust or simply disappointing career, chronic bad luck or bad choice, so many questions born one night of the 1984 NBA Draft with the No. 2 pick of the Portland TrailBlazers and the choice of the pivot, from Pennsylvania, Samuel Paul Bowie. The Kentucky player has hardly dragged his carcass bruised by a multitude of fractures for more than 10 years on the NBA floors, without however leaving an image other than that of an immense mess, the image of a talented but also fragile player than my grandmother’s crystal. A great glass man who in the end never could stand the comparison with the legends accompanying him on this 1984 vintage, Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon, giving birth to the legend of one of the greatest flop in the history of the Draft. NBA.
BAD OMEN
With his 2.16 m, his slender profile and his feline stride, Sam is the delight of Lebanon High School, he crushes the competition and places himself as one of the most anticipated prospects, as well as Isiah Thomas, Dominique Wilkins or James Worthy.
Logically, the largest universities in the country are snapping up the phenomenon. In a corner of his head, the ultimate goal: The NBA. Despite a social and family context not very conducive to development, alcoholic dad, complicated financial situation, difficult neighborhood, the ” Million Dollar Kid »Keep the course, the orange ball as a savior, and engages with the Kentucky Wildcats (his jersey will be removed) to show the general public that he deserves his place among the greats. The biggest league in the world then extends its arms to him …
The debut with Kentucky definitely confirms the potential glimpsed in high school with a first season with 12 points and 8 rebounds. At that moment, everything still smiles on young Sam, he even glimpses the heavens up to his selection with “Team USA” for the Moscow Olympics in 1980.
For its sophomore season, the dream continues. His “freak” physique combined with an astonishing fluidity for his size allows him to radiate on NCAA floors going up to an average of 17.5 points and 9 rebounds. The progression is sharp but will break in a fraction of a second.
On the occasion of a confrontation with the Commodores of Vanderbilt, after a raging dunk of which he has the secret, the ” big men Says the pendulum, the hoop slips through his hands, its entire weight crashing into his left leg. The fall is as brutal as the treatment it reserves for the arches.
Fatally injured, the bionic man from Kentucky manages to finish the NCAA tournament. The diagnosis is final with a stress fracture of the tibia.
Such an injury cannot remain without consequence and the choice to continue the tournament will prove to be more than doubtful. Finally, two seasons on the bench until the 1983-1984 season which will be his last for the Wildcats with a more than honorable record, 10.5 points and 9.2 rebounds. Strength of character, Sam Bowie, who could have given up everything after such a brutal shock, does not want to give up his NBA dream and decides to run for the 1984 Draft.
DRAFT, LIES AND VIDEOS
While the young player regains his taste for the orange ball, the Portland Trailblazers end a more than satisfactory regular season with a record of 48-34 leaving them a good third place in the Western Conference.
The sequel is more complicated, the Phoenix Suns eliminating the Oregon franchise in the first round of the playoffs, but the future is assured with the planned outbreak of Clyde ” The Glide »Drexler and the presence of more confirmed player like Jim Paxson or Mychal Thompson.
In exchange for Tom Owens went to the Pacers (1981), the worst record of the 1984 season, the Blazers inherits the franchise’s pick of Indiana in the next draft. They will then have to play a coin toss with the Houston Rockets to determine the first choice of the 1984 Draft. The duel will not turn in favor of the Blazers … Regardless, le « second pick » still a great bargain!
The opportunity is too good for Stu Inman to find the missing piece that could lead his franchise to the title. After a workforce review, the front office goes in search of its new Bill Walton in order to inflate its racket and leave the field open to its new nugget, Clyde Drexler. Indeed, for the General Manager, his team lacks a pivot to conquer the Grail.
The die-hard Northwestern franchise GM noses across the country and sets his sights on two young NCAA prospects Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing.
The first, a pivot of Nigerian origin, enjoys a huge rating and could be the subject of a first choice. The second, future New York pivot decides to wait another little year, so good old Stu decides to study the Sam Bowie question in depth, ” the [ Stu Inman] wasn’t just looking you in the eye, he was checking your whole body ” even declared the person concerned. The review will not be limited to the GM’s close observation as the Kentucky giant had to undergo a battery of medical tests that will mark a turning point in the player’s life and career.
The medical investigation will inevitably focus on the broken leg during the university tournament. Sam Bowie recounts the episode in an ESPN documentary, « Going big » :
« I remember they took a small hammer, hit me on the left shin with it, and I said “I can’t feel a thing”. But deep down, I was in pain. If what I did then was lie and it wasn’t right, in the end when your loved ones have certain needs, I did what anyone else would have done »
Once these doubts are raised, and despite lobbying from the Jordan clan, the decision of the Blazers boss is made and he will not go back. “I need a pivot” . Inevitably, Bowie’s late statement will come under sharp criticism, as we know Uncle Sam’s lie in land doesn’t get much press. Isn’t it Lance?
The President at the time, Harry Glickman inevitably took a dim view of these revelations which will force Bowie to justify himself:
“I did not seek to deceive or abuse anyone. To say that I deliberately went to the Portland front office and lied to them completely is not the truth, far from it. “. “
Here we are, the 1984 draft will see the Oregon franchise choose Sam Bowie in second position, well framed with in front of him, Hakeem Olajuwon and just behind Michael Jordan. the deepest wish of the kid of Lebanon is then granted and Portland sees the landing of the long-awaited pivot, the pivot that will perhaps allow him to find his way back to the NBA Finals.
A SHOOTING STAR CAREER
It’s time for the big debut in the NBA, and they are quite successful for the young man from Pennsylvania. In his first season with the big boys, Sam Bowie compiles 76 games at 10 points and 8.6 rebounds which will lead him to be selected in the “All-Rookie Team” for the 1984-1985 season. Not bad for a ghost.
A great start which will eventually wither away. After 38 games, his season came to an abrupt end with a broken left leg (again!). Starting point of a long ordeal, Bowie will no longer play the season and will only play 3 games the following season following a new fracture … of the right leg this time, karma wishing to restore balance in the galaxy NBA. This chain of injuries pushing him has only piled uparound thirty matches in three years, from 1986 to 1989. the myth of « Bust ultime » was being born …
The legend will gain momentum in the heart of the 90s with the consecration of these acolytes of the Draft podium. Michael Jordan is crowned “His Airness” while Hakeem Olajuwon becomes the “Dream” of Texas. In comparison, Bowie’s decade is part of the long Stations of the Cross which will continue to fuel the feeling of a huge mess for the North West franchise and a completely missed Draft …
First transferred to the New Jersey Nets where he will perform three honorable seasons (12.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.6 blocks) and then to the Los Angeles Lakers already marking the end of a career that had never really started, Sam Bowie will ultimately bear the brunt of the comparison with MJ until the end. Become forever “The one who was drafted before Michael Jordan”, he refused to sign with the Bulls at the dawn of the 1995-1996 season, tired of wiping the criticisms and the analogy with “Mike”.
« I always knew when the season was over I was going straight to Kentucky, because it was a healthy place for me, away from Michael Jordan and the critics. It was a good thing because when you fight like I fought, you pray for rest. And mine was to go back to Lexington.
When I came home, people would say, “Don’t worry about this. We know here that if you had strong legs, you would have been as good as Jordan is ”. And you need to hear that because it’s always good to know that there is positive feedback rather than negativity all the time. I used to hear a lot of comments here [à Lexington] saying: “You will always be one of the best to have played here.” They talk about college, Kentucky, college basketball. So that’s why I’d rather be here than in a town hearing all this stuff about MJ and the sadness that I drafted, that I’m the biggest bust the NBA has ever seen. ».
Flop or bad luck, casting error or unfortunate destiny, the questions remain unanswered since in truth, and despite all the comments, only Sam Bowie was able to assess the extent of his injury and his ability to play at the most. level. As a young adult, he presumably subconsciously withheld part of the truth to be able to fulfill his dream, the dream of any kid who plays basketball, playing in the NBA.
