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?
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?
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?
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.
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?