Sam Bowie Lied About Injuries Before He Was Drafted Ahead of Michael Jordan

The first sentence in Sam Bowie’s obit, undoubtedly, will reference that he was infamously drafted second overall by the Portland Trailblazers in 1984 when Michael Jordan was available. Bowie, whose NBA career was derailed by chronic foot and leg injuries, confesses that he was less than honest about the state of his health coming into the League. Per the upcoming documentary “Going Big“, set to air December 20 on ESPNU (via BDL): “I can still remember them taking a little mallet, and when they would hit me on my left tibia, and ‘I don’t feel anything’ I would tell ’em. But deep down inside, it was hurting. If what I did was lying and what I did was wrong, at the end of the day, when you have loved ones that have some needs, I did what any of us would have done.’ […] There’s a fractured shin in college that went undiagnosed for months. Then there’s the admission that he hid pain from Portland doctors before the draft. And then on draft night, with Houston already having selected Hakeem Olajuwon first overall and Jordan off at Team USA’s training camp in preparation for the 1984 Olympics, the Blazers made what was considered the obvious choice. With an All-Star small forward in Jim Paxson already on the roster, and a promising young shooting guard in Clyde Drexler set to take in a minutes increase at shooting guard, they chose Bowie. And Bowie, speaking in 2012, relayed that even while sitting amongst his draft class on that night, he knew that something was wrong. That, ‘deep down inside I physically wasn’t what these guys were.'”