If Michael Jordan Had Been Drafted FIrst…Barack Obama Would Not Be President | See Me Squeegee
Authors note: this article was a chapter in a book that my friend Adam and I never finished writing, but that we loved. The premise What if in the world of sports, taking events or decisions and applying them to the Back to the Future / Space-Time Continuum test. How would history be different? Heres one of our favorite chapters, predicting that if Michael Jordan, the greatest player of all time, had been rightfully drafted first by Houston (and not third by Chicago), Barack Obama would not be president. Sidenote we love the idea of footnotes, so please be warned that there are footnotes at the bottom of the post. Here goes:
What if the Houston Rockets had drafted Michael Jordan with the first pick in the 1984 NBA Draft?
The 1984 NBA Draft may well be the most-discussed what if draft in sports history. Famously, the Portland Trailblazers took injury-prone, seven-foot center Sam Bowie with the second pick, enabling the Chicago Bulls to take Michael Jordan third. That selection would pay off in a big way for the Bulls, leading to six NBA championships, nine trips to the conference finals, and an unparalleled legacy as one of the greatest dynasties in sports. Bowie, on the other hand, would suffer through an injury-plagued career and become most famous as a punchline, the guy who was drafted ahead of Jordan.
The Houston Rockets selected first in that draft, taking center Hakeem Olajuwon, and have never received much criticism for that choice. Olajuwon was a cant-miss prospect, and certainly didnt. In his second season, the Rockets made the NBA Finals (losing to the Boston Celtics), and by the end of his career he had led Houston to two championships[1]. In hindsight, Houston made a perfectly defensible choice with Olajuwon, but given Jordans career its hard to say that the Rockets shouldnt have drafted MJ. What would have happened if Houston had paired Ralph Sampson with Jordan? If Portland had paired Clyde Drexler with Hakeem Olajuwon? On the court, Portland would have been an absolute juggernaut, and with the Showtime Lakers, the David Robinson-led Spurs, and other Western contenders along the way, the deck would have been stacked a bit more against Jordan. Off the court, one could argue, more importantly, that if Houston had picked Jordan, Barack Obama would not be United States President.
How are the two events linked? Consider Jordans legacy as an African-American icon and pillar of American business, in the state of Illinois, spanning the childhood of the generation that would elect Obama to the U.S. Senate from Illinois. That Jordan and Obama rose to prominence in the same state was helpful; that Jordan walked in to such a tailor-made situation to launch him to unparalleled success and influence in American pop culture was pivotal.
First, lets look at Michael Jordans influence in setting the stage for a black president in a nation less than 150 years removed from slavery; less than a generation removed from school segregation and the assassinations of nearly every prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. In a nation where Obama was only the third black (post-Reconstruction[2]) Senator in an organization that maintains 100 members. Jordan is credited, along with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, with rescuing the NBA from its image problems in the early 1980s. This was a tall order, as the image problems were mainly that the NBA was too urban for white America, which was fearful of drugs and gang culture. To be truthful, the NBA did have a fairly prominent cocaine problem at the time, but its also fair to note that America wasnt quite ready for a thoroughly-black league only a generation after Jackie Robinson. Jordans winning smile, relatable demeanor, and gentle touch transitioned the NBA from a perception of overpaid, overmedicated thugs[3] to a family-friendly, aspirational activity, with parents singing along with their children that they wanted to Be Like Mike[4].
Jordans elevation of the NBA was no small feat, but its even more noteworthy that he had songs like Be Like Mike to sing from his myriad endorsement contracts. What he accomplished on the court was remarkable; the impact he had on the world off the court set the stage for a president like Barack Obama. Jordan became the man every child wanted to be, and the man every parent would be proud to have as a son. He had all the makings of a true American hero he so idolized his father that he adopted (and made famous) his fathers nervous habit of sticking his tongue out as he worked. He loved his mother, and so shared her passion for education that he wore his collegiate North Carolina shorts under his Bulls uniform (an homage to the school and his coach, Dean Smith proof that Jordan respected and admired authority and those who could teach him). He exemplified hard work and perseverance, having been cut from his high school varsity team before becoming a prep star.
And he was black, but in an America in which adjectives tend to precede the people they describe, Jordan wasnt a black superstar but rather a superstar who happened to be black. Parents had little choice but to (and little incentive not to) embrace him as their childrens hero, and kids saw him as Superman with little regard for the color of his skin. By the late 1980s, less than a full generation removed from the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and in the same timeframe as states fought to decline Kings holiday and keep their Confederate flags a black man was Americas most prominent icon, export, and matinee idol.
By 2008, the generation that grew up idolizing Jordan would be Barack Obamas support base, forming a volunteer army that transformed the world of politics and voting in record numbers for their age demographic. Their parents, the Baby Boomers, would represent the nations largest demographic group, and between the two groups would form a large majority of the voting-age public. Having all come of age with a black hero on their walls, t-shirts, and televisions, they would represent the first voting public in American history with even a remote inkling that a black man could lead them.
To become president, however, one needs much more than the qualifications and demeanor to ensure the people that he can lead. Well before that point, one needs the financial support of corporate and upper-class America to be able to afford the media necessary to reach out to the people. The major political parties would certainly like to have a candidate who is capable, but they are much more concerned in having a candidate who is electable. Politics is at least as much about winning as it is about governing, if only because you cant do the latter if you havent done the former. With again, it bears repeating only four black senators in modern history, how could corporate America in good faith put its backing behind a black candidate with a true chance to win the presidency?
Enter Michael Jordan, who between the years of 1984 and 2008 had proven, time and time again, to big business that investments in a black spokesperson-slash-icon can pay huge dividends. Few blacks had risen to much national notoriety in anything other than black capacities, and the vast majority of corporate pitchmen were white. But there was Jordan, cool, calm, and collected, the antithesis of blacksploitation, playing the leading man in ads for Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonalds Hanes, Gatorade, General Motors, and other top companies; there was Jordan starring alongside Bugs Bunny in a family-themed feature film, Space Jam; there was Jordan, speaking at events for management consultants, investment bankers, salesmen, and advertisers alike, relishing his role as businessman off the court nearly as much as he thrived on winning on the court.
Fortune Magazine estimated upon Jordans (second) retirement from the NBA in 1998 that his impact on the global economy to that point had been $10 billion. The Journal of Advertising Research found that Jordans return to basketball in 1995, after his first retirement, increased the market capitalization of his then-endorsement firms by $1 billion. Jay-Z may get credit for the lyric, but it can easily be said that Jordan wasnt a businessman, he was a business, man. Or, more appropriately, an economy unto himself, and a business force that hadnt been seen before. Corporate America thrived upon the likability of a tall, handsome, well-spoken[5] black man, and the stage was set for similar figures like Barack Obama to achieve similar corporately-funded heights.
So, as argued above, Jordans popularity among the masses and profitability for Corporate America set the stage for Barack Obamas rise to the presidency. Why couldnt this have happened had Jordan played in Houston? Even aside from the coincidence that Jordan and Obama both called Illinois home a contributing factor to this argument Jordans presence in Chicago was crucial both on and off the court.
On the court? Had Jordan been drafted initially by Houston, the Portland Trailblazers drafting next would certainly have chosen Hakeem Olajuwon, giving Portland a nucleus of Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, Jerome Kersey, Mychal Thompson, and then the addition of Terry Porter the next year (Portland drafted him with the final pick of the first round in 1985, so for the sake of argument one can assume theyd have had a chance to draft him regardless of the draft order that year). Considering that, in reality, Portland became a legitimate force in the West with essentially nothing to show for that years pick, the hypothetical addition of all-time great Olajuwon makes Portland a dominant team in the Western Conference, along with the Magic Johnson-led Los Angeles Lakers, over the next 5-6 years at least.
Had Jordan been drafted first, hed have been paired with Ralph Sampson, who at the time was a top-tier player, but by the late 1980s would be a non-factor given his knee injuries. With Sampson, Jordan may have achieved some early playoff success in 1985-88, but its unlikely that those Rockets could have endured the Lakers, the hypothetical Blazers, and the rest of the Western Conference, and even if they had the Boston Celtics of that era were a juggernaut of their own. Its safe to say that Jordans career wouldnt have had the Hollywood-scripted arc that he achieved in Chicago rise to stardom as a one-man show from 1984-1987, three epic duels with the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons from 1988-1990 as Jordan learned to win and built a foundation around him, a thorough drubbing of those villainous Pistons in 1991 and a championship over Magic Johnson in 1991, dominance of another prominent villain, the New York Knicks, and more titles in 1992-93, and then a return to basketball and three more championships from 1996-98. Likely, if drafted by Houston, Jordan has a little more success but not championships in his first few years, then is forced to rebuild with the injuries to Sampson in the late 1980s, just when his real-life Bulls were achieving prominence, and while the hypothetical Blazers (and Lakers) were hitting their peaks. Without the ready-made villain Pistons, the ascendant character arc of the late 1980s culminating in the 1991 championship finals with the countrys second- and third-largest media markets (LA and Chicago) and the sports other biggest star, Magic Johnson, would Jordan have reached the same lofty heights?
While possible, its doubtful, and even were Jordan able to do so on the court, off the court hed have had the challenge remember, were talking about his impact culturally and economically more so than athletically of playing in Houston and not in Chicago. Not that theres anything wrong with Houston[6], but Chicago is a quintessential American city along both dimensions that Jordan (and later Obama) rose to prominence culturally, its one of the most-relatable cities to the rest of the nation, and economically its arguably the second-most important city in the U.S. (behind New York). If Corporate America were to choose a perfect pitchman to make an icon, Chicago would be a natural place to look, and Jordan almost immediately became the advertising industrys greatest find.
In terms of business, Chicago has few peers on the global scale. Its one of the worlds most prominent financial centers and home to much of the advertising industry and several of the worlds biggest advertisers, including McDonalds. While only a handful of Illinois-based businesses could afford Jordans sponsorship fees, everyone who was anyone in Chicago had Bulls tickets during Jordans career, and that group included some of the wealthiest and most influential people in business. Jordan had a built-in audience of the whos who of American business, and accordingly could convince the mass of Corporate America to invest in certain pillars of black America.
Equally, if not more, important to this argument is that Chicago is, for purposes of media, advertising, and politics, about as American as it gets. Home to many an American family sitcom or movie Home Alone, Family Matters, Ferris Buellers Day Off, the National Lampoons Vacation series and John Hughes catalogue, etc. Chicago is uniquely relatable to most of Americans. A notable city with a famous skyline, Chicago is known for family values not attributed to New York or Los Angeles. As a center of travel it was the mainstay of the railroad industry and its OHare Airport was, for most of Jordans career, the busiest in the world and business, its a location with which many have ties, having either been there or knowing someone who has[7].
