Okay, this idea's been floating around in my brain since maybe about 1993 when I watched a 25th anniversary tape put out by the Phoenix Suns that basically documented the history of the team.
Imagine my surprise to find out that if not for the flip of a coin, one of the greatest basketball players to ever play the game could have his jersey hanging from the roof of the US Airways Center.
Check it out:
In 1968, there were two expansion teams added to the NBA - the Phoenix Suns and the Milwaukee Bucks. The two teams were vying for the number-one draft pick. That year, it was Lew Alcindor AKA Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from UCLA.
They settled it with a coin flip.
Milwaukee won the coin toss. They got Kareem. Phoenix selected Neal Walk.
The rest is history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kareem_Abdul-Jabbar#Professional_athletics
But luck can go either way.
What if Phoenix won the toss? How would the history of both teams (and the rest of the NBA) be different if Kareem started his career as a Sun instead of a Buck?
Any takers? I think we could turn this into a TL if anyone's interested.
Imagine my surprise to find out that if not for the flip of a coin, one of the greatest basketball players to ever play the game could have his jersey hanging from the roof of the US Airways Center.
Check it out:
In 1968, there were two expansion teams added to the NBA - the Phoenix Suns and the Milwaukee Bucks. The two teams were vying for the number-one draft pick. That year, it was Lew Alcindor AKA Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from UCLA.
They settled it with a coin flip.
Milwaukee won the coin toss. They got Kareem. Phoenix selected Neal Walk.
The rest is history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kareem_Abdul-Jabbar#Professional_athletics
But luck can go either way.
What if Phoenix won the toss? How would the history of both teams (and the rest of the NBA) be different if Kareem started his career as a Sun instead of a Buck?
Any takers? I think we could turn this into a TL if anyone's interested.
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