What If?

As sports fans we all like to think about hypotheticals, the “what if’s” are fun to think about because you can end up debating them for years. Today we’re going to look at some of the top what-if’s in the NBA since 2000.

1. Unless you’re an NBA junkie like you might not know that when Kobe Bryant was drafted the Charlotte originally took the 17-year old whose parents had to cosign the trade to send him to Los Angeles. We all know the rest of the story for Bryant, 5 NBA titles and 33,000 points later the mystery of that night in 1996 still haunts the Hornets who are now run by Michael Jordan. What if they wouldn’t have traded him? What if Kobe was in Charlotte? Would he still have had the career he’s had? For the sake of argument we’ll say no, if that’s the case then Kobe would be just an average player with maybe 25,000 points and no titles. Good call Jerry West, good call.
2. Speaking of the Lakers, in 2002 the Lakers who were led by Kobe and Shaq, won their third straight NBA title. In what might have b
   
   
   een the greatest Conference Final in NBA history, that streak nearly came to an end before a tipped ball landed in the hands of Bob Horry who nailed a three as time expired to give the Lakers the win and tied the series at two games a piece. The Lakers obviously would go on to win the series and the NBA Championship, but what if Horry doesn’t make that 3? The Kings dominated game 3 and stole momentum in the series heading into that game 4. Had the Kings won that game and headed back to Sacramento with a 3-2 series lead, you would have to think that they would have closed it out and the Lakers streak would’ve ended at two and perhaps the Kings would have started their own streak. That wouldn’t be the only time Big Shot Bob would be heard from.
3. We all saw The Decision where LeBron James announced he would take is talents to South Beach and join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. The Heat would go on to win two NBA titles in four seasons but what if LeBron didn’t go to Miami? What if he stayed in Cleveland? Would Dan Gilbert have listened to James and brought in another superstar to play along side him and brought Cleveland it’s first pro championship since 1964. Instead, LeBron goes to south Florida and brings the Heat two titles. The King is back in Cleveland but got derailed in year one by Golden State and Step Curry, year two is shaping up to be different with a healthy Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. We’ll see come June. LeBron could still be looking for his first NBA Championship. 
4. The Detroit Pistons held the second pick in the 2003 NBA Draft and took Darko Milicic from Serbia. The next three picks, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade. The success of those three players is well documented, but where is Darko? He played on six teams from 2003 until 2012 when he retired to focus on kickboxing. He did win an NBA title with the Pistons in 2004 but he wasn’t the reason they won. What if the Pistons had taken Melo, Bosh, or D Wade instead of Darko? Throw one of those guys in the mix with those great Pistons teams and they likely win more than one championship in the six times they got to the Eastern Conference Finals. As a Pistons fan at heart, I can tell you that pick really hurt and still does. Bad call Joe Dumars, bad call.

Stephen Springer, follow him on Twitter @Stephen_Springs