Sports What Ifs.

Apparently, the reason that Ron Harper was traded was that he was caught socializing with suspected drug traffickers:


When he found out, Gordon Gund, the Cavs' owner, said that they needed to trade him right away, even though no drug charges were filed against Harper.

They ended up trading him to the Clippers for Danny Ferry, and the rest is history. Cleveland was unable to get by the Bulls without him.

However, what if cooler heads prevailed? What if they waited to see if Harper was really guilty?
He is getting trade as he might want out such bad owner
 
I remember looking on Dirty Laundry of Ewing going into the 1984 Draft alongside Michael Jordan and both ending up on the Houston Rockets. Regardless of team, I am more curious as to the consequences of both players actually being on the same team.
 
Apparently, the reason that Ron Harper was traded was that he was caught socializing with suspected drug traffickers:


When he found out, Gordon Gund, the Cavs' owner, said that they needed to trade him right away, even though no drug charges were filed against Harper.

They ended up trading him to the Clippers for Danny Ferry, and the rest is history. Cleveland was unable to get by the Bulls without him.

However, what if cooler heads prevailed? What if they waited to see if Harper was really guilty?

He had a lot of injury issues as did Mark Price and Brad Daugherty. They had some great talent and wish they could have gotten a title. But I dont think keeping Harper would have gotten them over the hump. In fact, their best chance was arguably the season that Jordan beat them with the iconic shot.
 
He had a lot of injury issues as did Mark Price and Brad Daugherty. They had some great talent and wish they could have gotten a title. But I dont think keeping Harper would have gotten them over the hump. In fact, their best chance was arguably the season that Jordan beat them with the iconic shot.

I think those started after he was traded to the Clippers, though. Could be the Clipper Curse :).
 
What if, instead of Keith Lee (1) (whom they drafted in OTL), the Chicago Bulls draft power forward Karl Malone (who went #13 to the Utah Jazz in OTL)?

Assuming the Bulls still manage to get Pippen in 1987, the Bulls are going to dominate most of the 1990s...

(1) The basketball player, not the wrestler of the same name...
 
Last edited:
What if, instead of Keith Lee (1) (whom they drafted in OTL), the Chicago Bulls draft power forward Karl Malone (who went #13 to the Utah Jazz in OTL)?

Assuming the Bulls still manage to get Pippen in 1987, the Bulls are going to dominate most of the 1990s...

(1) The basketball player, not the wrestler of the same name...

On draft night 1987, the Bulls still draft Polynice and Horace Grant, but they trade Horace to the Sonics instead of Polynice (the Bulls didn't have a big man).

With a big three of MJ, Malone, and Pippen, the Bulls overcome the Pistons a year earlier, and probably win more than six titles (they may win from 1990-93 and 95-98 or 99).
 

I looked at their 2008 season. They were 9-7, and had four losses by four points or less. If Favre is healthy at the end of that season, I can see a 12-win team that year, at least. Favre probably breaks their heart at some point in the playoffs, though.

However, Gruden stays another year, and they are picking near the end of round 1. Maybe they get Hakeem Nicks to bolster the weapons around Favre, and then add Terrance Knighton at the end of Round 2 (Chris Hovan was 30, and would only go on to play one more year in the NFL).

In 09, the Bucs finished 3-13. They probably win about five more games with Favre, but 9-7 doesn't cut the mustard in the NFC WC race that year. Then, in 2010, if he still falls off a cliff, they will be looking for a new QB in 2011 (like Dalton or Kapernick).
 
Recently, JaguarGator on You Tube posted this video about the 1967 NFL re-alignment:

In the comments, I said that the divisions should have been more geographical, like this:

Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division: Atlanta, N.Y. Giants, Washington, Philadelphia
Industry Division: Baltimore, Cleveland, Dallas, Pittsburgh

Western Conference
Central Division: Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, Minnesota
Gateway Division: L.A. Rams, New Orleans, St. Louis, San Francisco

I called the second division in the East the Industry division because you have rust belt cities Cleveland and Pittsburgh in there, and Dallas has always been a business first town. Also, the Gateway division comes from St. Louis, obviously.
 
Recently, JaguarGator on You Tube posted this video about the 1967 NFL re-alignment:

In the comments, I said that the divisions should have been more geographical, like this:

Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division: Atlanta, N.Y. Giants, Washington, Philadelphia
Industry Division: Baltimore, Cleveland, Dallas, Pittsburgh

Western Conference
Central Division: Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, Minnesota
Gateway Division: L.A. Rams, New Orleans, St. Louis, San Francisco

I called the second division in the East the Industry division because you have rust belt cities Cleveland and Pittsburgh in there, and Dallas has always been a business first town. Also, the Gateway division comes from St. Louis, obviously.

They were rotating teams at the time. If I had to guess, I would say it was to get the Saints and Falcons to see all the other NFL teams as soon as possible. Kind of like what they did with the 1976-77 schedule.
 
They were rotating teams at the time. If I had to guess, I would say it was to get the Saints and Falcons to see all the other NFL teams as soon as possible. Kind of like what they did with the 1976-77 schedule.

Yeah, they did do that with the Bucs and Seahawks (switch conferences). I wouldn't have done that. I think that the Seahawks should have stayed in the NFC West permanently.
 
As a Packer fan, I cringed at the thought of using founder names, because I immediately realized one of the 4 would have been the Halas Division. :) Yeah, given the rivalries I don't think they could have used the NHL's later idea of naming divisions after people.

Of course, then again, saying we won the Halas Division might give Packer fans some joy.

Players would have been interesting - the Thorpe Division could have had the Browns, Steelers, etc. (St. Louis being in there would have been nice as a shoutout to the Plains Indians.) Others could have been the Grange... nah, there's a Bear again. :)
Colors could have been used, too - Yellow (or Gold if they didn't want the coward association), Red, and Blue for the primary colors, and then add Green in.

Okay, we've kind of run out of what-ifs, so let's try something a little different, based on the Javier Baez crazy rundown - how could we get an all-time great in any of the major sports to have such a brain fart that he's remembered as still an all-time great but also as someone along the lines of Fred Merkle of Merkle's Boner or Jim Marshall of the wrong-way run. I'm not talkign just a strategic blunder (like Baby Ruth being caught stealing for the last out of the 1926 World Series) but a "My LIttle Leaguer said that was dumb" blunder. (Although if you can turn one into Bull Buckner for the '86 Red Sox that would also be interesting.)
 
Players would have been interesting - the Thorpe Division could have had the Browns, Steelers, etc. (St. Louis being in there would have been nice as a shoutout to the Plains Indians.) Others could have been the Grange... nah, there's a Bear again. :)
Colors could have been used, too - Yellow (or Gold if they didn't want the coward association), Red, and Blue for the primary colors, and then add Green in.

Pollard and Thorpe could be two of the divisions.

Foss (for the AFL commissioner) and Bell (previous NFL commissioner). Or if you were doing it today, Goodell because he's egotistical enough.

One of the divisions could be the Tillman division if you went with NHL style names right now.
 
As a Packer fan, I cringed at the thought of using founder names, because I immediately realized one of the 4 would have been the Halas Division. :) Yeah, given the rivalries I don't think they could have used the NHL's later idea of naming divisions after people.

Of course, then again, saying we won the Halas Division might give Packer fans some joy.

Players would have been interesting - the Thorpe Division could have had the Browns, Steelers, etc. (St. Louis being in there would have been nice as a shoutout to the Plains Indians.) Others could have been the Grange... nah, there's a Bear again. :)
Colors could have been used, too - Yellow (or Gold if they didn't want the coward association), Red, and Blue for the primary colors, and then add Green in.

Okay, we've kind of run out of what-ifs, so let's try something a little different, based on the Javier Baez crazy rundown - how could we get an all-time great in any of the major sports to have such a brain fart that he's remembered as still an all-time great but also as someone along the lines of Fred Merkle of Merkle's Boner or Jim Marshall of the wrong-way run. I'm not talkign just a strategic blunder (like Baby Ruth being caught stealing for the last out of the 1926 World Series) but a "My LIttle Leaguer said that was dumb" blunder. (Although if you can turn one into Bull Buckner for the '86 Red Sox that would also be interesting.)
I suggested a while back when there were still rumors of the Jags moving to St. Louis that the NFC could go back to the 66-69 division names (Capitol, Century, Central, Coastal) and that the AFC could adopt something similar: the East would become the Metropolitan since NY and Boston play there, the North would be the Millennium as a play on the Century (Pittsburgh and Cleveland played in the old Century, and the Ravens are the Eve to the Browns’ Adam), the South would be the Midwest since it would have teams in Indianapolis and St. Louis along with Tennessee and Houston, and the West would be the Mountain.
 
This might be contentious for understandable/justified reasons but what if the Group of 5 Conferences (American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference, and Sun Belt Conference) never received a guaranteed NY6 bid at the beginning of the College Football Playoff Era in 2014? How would that change things for College football (particularly FBS)?
 
This might be contentious for understandable/justified reasons but what if the Group of 5 Conferences (American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference, and Sun Belt Conference) never received a guaranteed NY6 bid at the beginning of the College Football Playoff Era in 2014? How would that change things for College football (particularly FBS)?
There would have been most likely an Anti-Trust suite against the Power 5 that would have resulted in either a big payday for the Group of 5(winning plaintiffs in Anti-Trust suites gets treble damages awards) or the whole colligate sports system would have imploded as schools from the non élite conferences would had to drop the level of competition in football because they can't get enough money from television contracts to pay for the scholarships for players.
 
There would have been most likely an Anti-Trust suite against the Power 5 that would have resulted in either a big payday for the Group of 5(winning plaintiffs in Anti-Trust suites gets treble damages awards) or the whole colligate sports system would have imploded as schools from the non élite conferences would had to drop the level of competition in football because they can't get enough money from television contracts to pay for the scholarships for players.
Or they take a page from european soccer and basketball and all the big colleges leave the NCAA and form a college football super league.
 
Top