NBA PODs?

What are some good PODs for the National Basketball Association (preferably from the 90s onward), apart from the ones like Len Bias not dying, or a Hurricane derailing Tim Duncan's hopes of becoming a swimmer and leading him to basketball?
 
1990-91 was the first Bulls championship. Maybe Jordan gets injured, never wins that first, never successfully rehabs. Ends up with Bill Walton feet or somesuch.

Of course, soon thereafter, Magic Johnson announces he has HIV and retires. (And unretires twice, but that's another story). Maybe he's more careful, and doesn't get HIV. SO the Bulls (without the imagined Jordan injury) and Lakers play again in the 1992 Finals, the Lakers winning this time, stopping Jordan's run before it ever really got started.
 
Jordan never returns to the NBA after his initial retirement. In 1996, the Sonics beat Orlando 4-1 in the NBA Finals. In 1997, the Jazz sweep the Miami Heat 4-0 to win their first-ever championship. They repeat as champions in '98, defeating the Indiana Pacers 4-2.

The Bulls are generally competitive in those years, but fail to advance beyond the Eastern Finals. They still blow up the franchise in '99, though, with Phil Jackson retiring and Scottie Pippen signing with Portland.

The NBA takes an even larger hit from the NBA Lockout, since it doesn't come on the heels of the greatest Finals in NBA history (Utah Jazz-Chicago Bulls is, as I stated, changed to a rather ho-hum series between the Jazz & Pacers). Jordan's legend is still dominant, but not necessarily cemented without three additional titles.

Karl Malone is declared the MVP for three consecutive NBA seasons ('97, '98 & '99). Because of this, along with two NBA titles, he quickly goes down as one of the top-three NBA players in NBA history (as opposed to just top-ten).

Of course, Jackson wins three less championships and Chicago's drought of NBA titles is extended by an extra three years, which today would be 18 years without a championship.

Jordan never has a brief, and rather unforgettable, return with the Wizards.

Not radical adjustments, obviously, but enough to alter some dynamics.
 
How 'bout some more radical what ifs that affect the game itself. Such as...

The 3-point shot is not adopted, or...

The basket is raised to eliminate dunks and goal tending, or...

Five personal fouls, not six, lead to a player's ejection, or...

all fouls result in two foul shots, or...

A strict definition of travelling as one full step without dribbling is maintained...

What would the NBA game look like today and would it be as popular?
 
Shot Clock.

How 'bout some more radical what ifs that affect the game itself. Such as...

The 3-point shot is not adopted, or...

The basket is raised to eliminate dunks and goal tending, or...

Five personal fouls, not six, lead to a player's ejection, or...

all fouls result in two foul shots, or...

A strict definition of travelling as one full step without dribbling is maintained...

What would the NBA game look like today and would it be as popular?

I don't really like the first two, because dunks and the trifecta make basketball that much better. I also don't like the next two. Six is perfect for the NBA because it is a 48-minute game. As for the foul shots, I like the fact that you have to accumulate so many fouls because some foul calls are nonsensical.

Speaking of rules, though, a biggie that doesn't get talked about is the advent of the shot clock in the 1950's. I heard that the NBA was really boring back then, and there would be a lot of really low scoring games before the clock was ushered in. I also heard that fights were breaking out in arenas because of fan dissatisfaction.

If the shot clock isn't invented, the NBA may have went under, and who knows how long it would have taken pro basketball to recover.
 
Eliminating the first two would have killed the NBA in the 1970s and 80s - or at least, made it less watchable than it initially would become.

So, if the NBA's Golden Era, which most sports fans believe happened from the 1970s through the 90s, never happened, the league probably is substantially less popular than it is today (and even today, it's taken a hit).

But the advancements seen with the three-point line (popularized with the ABA, a rival to the NBA) and no dunks (imagine no Air Jordan, Dr. J, The Human Highlight Film, Mailman, Reign Man, Chocolate Thunder and others), the NBA might have fizzled in the 70s, puttered through the 80s and sputtered in the 90s.

It would still exist, of course, but maybe not at the level it became the last part of the 20th Century. It went from a niche league to, arguably, the 2nd most popular (or at least a bit more rival to the MLB than it was prior to the 90s) professional sports league in the country. It'll never attain the heights of the NFL, but for a thirty-year stretch, it was pretty damn spectacular.

Hard to imagine that happens without a three-point line and the exciting slam dunk.
 
How 'bout some more radical what ifs that affect the game itself. Such as...

The 3-point shot is not adopted, or...

The basket is raised to eliminate dunks and goal tending, or...

Five personal fouls, not six, lead to a player's ejection, or...

all fouls result in two foul shots, or...

A strict definition of travelling as one full step without dribbling is maintained...

What would the NBA game look like today and would it be as popular?

Agree that the elimination of the first two would have led to a gray, stagnant, NCAA-esque NBA.

The next two would create a complete imbalance in terms of giving power to the offense player, and also necessitate the creation of extremely deep benches.

No shot clock would have also created more 19-18 games in which the games are absolutely unwatchable.

Other NBA WI:

Len Bias doesn't die of cocaine overdose:

NBC continues to broadcast games nationally instead of giving up their contract to ABC after the 2001-2002 season: Seriously, the NBA on NBC introduction music is the most trendy sports themes in all of TV.

Kobe and Shaq are able to get along: Could have been the greatest duo of all time if they'd have gotten along. They were at each other throats and they still won 3 titles.
 
Webber

1. In the 1993 draft, Webber stays with the Magic, and Penny stays with the Warriors. In that scenario, the Magic win an NBA title by 1995, and Shaq stays in Orlando. That butterflies away the Laker success of the 00's. Also, Penny has a better career in Golden State, and they trade away Tim Hardaway to get more pieces to the puzzle, making the Warriors a West threat.

2. The Blazers hold on and beat the Lakers in the 2000 West Finals. They go on to beat Indiana in the Finals. They don't pick up Shawn Kemp and Dale Davis in the offseason, and give young Jermaine O'Neal a chance. They end up repeating the next year, and stay a contender for the forseeable future, butterflying away the ill-fated Oden-Roy "Pritchslap" era.
 
Drazen Petrovic doesn't die in a car crash, and his success butterflies to even more European players entering the league over the coming years.
 
1984

1. Cleveland loses three more games in 1984, and has the worst record in the East. Since they traded away their #1 pick in 1984 to the Mavs, Houston and Dallas go head to head in the Super Flip for the #1 pick. Dallas wins and takes Olajuwon. Houston loses and takes Jordan. The Blazers still take Bowie at 3, and the Bulls trade the fourth overall pick to Atlanta for Tree Rollins. Atlanta takes Barkley and Kevin Willis with their first two picks in the draft.

2. The Hawks are able to sign David Thompson and Marvin "Human Eraser" Webster, their two high first round picks in the 75 draft.
 
Another one...

The Jazz ultimately aren't forced to compensate the Lakers for signing Gail Goodrich, so they hold on to their draft picks and, finishing with the worst record after the '79 season, draft Magic Johnson - instead of L.A., who found themselves in possession of the pick despite a 47-35 record.

Magic with the Jazz? Oh boy.
 
Another one...

The Jazz ultimately aren't forced to compensate the Lakers for signing Gail Goodrich, so they hold on to their draft picks and, finishing with the worst record after the '79 season, draft Magic Johnson - instead of L.A., who found themselves in possession of the pick despite a 47-35 record.

Magic with the Jazz? Oh boy.

If Utah was in that flip, and not the Lakers, it is likely that Magic may have went back to Michigan State. Then, the Pistons, knowing that Magic could be coming out, don't trade their pick to the Celtics for Bob McAdoo.
 
Draft Lottery changes

1. The Suns win the 1987 Draft Lottery, and they draft David Robinson.

2. The Celtics win the 1997 Draft Lottery, and they draft Tim Duncan. They also take Chauncey Billups with their second first-rounder.

3. The Sonics win the 2007 Draft Lottery, and take Greg Oden, leaving Portland with Kevin Durant.
 
Arvydas Sabonis

The Portland Trail Blazers selected Lithuanian center Arvydas Sabonis with the 24th pick in the 1986 NBA draft; however, he did not join the team until 1995.

What if Soviet authorities allowed Sabonis to join the Trail Blazers as early as the late eighties? Most of you I am sure aware of the Trail Blazers deep playoff runs in the early nineties, including two appearances in the NBA finals (losing to the Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls, respectively).

Would the presence of Sabonis at center allow the Trail Blazers to get over the hump and win the NBA title? Or were the teams they lost to, including the Magic Johnson lead Lakers in the 1991 West Conference Finals, simply too good for a Trail Blazers team even with Sabonis?
 
The Portland Trail Blazers selected Lithuanian center Arvydas Sabonis with the 24th pick in the 1986 NBA draft; however, he did not join the team until 1995.

What if Soviet authorities allowed Sabonis to join the Trail Blazers as early as the late eighties? Most of you I am sure aware of the Trail Blazers deep playoff runs in the early nineties, including two appearances in the NBA finals (losing to the Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls, respectively).

Would the presence of Sabonis at center allow the Trail Blazers to get over the hump and win the NBA title? Or were the teams they lost to, including the Magic Johnson lead Lakers in the 1991 West Conference Finals, simply too good for a Trail Blazers team even with Sabonis?

If Sabas joins them in time for the 1988-89 season (that would have been the earliest that he would have joined them), they may have been contenders right away. I don't know if they get by the Lakers that year, but if they still make that trade for Buck Williams the next year, then they could have won several titles. They probably would have had a dynasty if Sabonis stayed healthy.
 
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