Gregg Popovich took over the San Antonio Spurs at about this point in the season in 1996, replacing Bob Hill as head coach. The firing was a surprise, many expected Hill ousted after San Antonio’s unappealing playoff exit the spring before, stringing him along for 18 extra (David Robinson-less) games the next season felt a little off.
The Spurs lost a lot, drafted Tim Duncan, and 25 years on Popovich is 21 wins away from supplanting Don Nelson (who first dragged Popovich onto an NBA bench) as the NBA’s all-time leader in head coaching wins.
Because of the relationship, and a natural unease with self-analysis, Pop’s been succinct.
Of course, Duncan came awfully close to leaving the Spurs in 2000 as a free agent, after only three seasons with Popovich.
Like, what if?
Too often the re-telling of Tim Duncan’s trip to Orlando includes actual magic, landing Duncan on the same team as Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady, but the Magic only had two max salary slots.
With Tim in Orlando, McGrady wasn’t taking Duncan’s salary position in San Antonio, not after the greeting Benny the Bull gave T-Mac in Chicago:
The Bulls rolled out the red-velvet carpet. They met McGrady at the airport with a three-piece band, the Luvabulls, mascot Benny the Bull and fans chanting, ‘T-Mac!’ They showed him personalized recruiting videos made by Oprah and Jesse Jackson.
They imposed on the Cubs to let McGrady and a trailing media horde visit both dugouts before Saturday’s White Sox-Cubs game, throw out the first ball to Sammy Sosa and lead an adoring throng in ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game.’
With Duncan (and probably Antonio Daniels) out of the picture, the Spurs have space to work with. Does the team punt it, and hope to lure Chris Webber (then working uneasily with Jason Williams and the stuck-at-eighth-seed Kings) as a free agent in 2001? Does it overpay for Austin Croshere, blow the Bucks out of the water for Tim Thomas, or push in on the Brian Grant sweepstakes?
San Antonio still signs Derek Anderson to a his two-year, big value, deal. The Spurs drafted Manu Ginobili in 1999 and knew what they had. Wherever Tony Parker was about to land in the 2001 draft, the Spurs were going to deal a slot or two ahead and snap him up. Shake the bedsheet all you want, they’re in the Spurs’ timeline.
But no Duncan replacements. The problem is that everyone — Grant, free agent Eddie Jones — wanted to be in Miami, to play along Alonzo Mourning. Florida really had itself a year in 2000.
You couldn’t outbid the Heat, only hope to pluck something in a sign-and-trade. San Antonio could slide into the three-team deal moving Brian Grant to Miami, offering the Blazers a sign-and-trade for Antonio Daniels plus Steve Kerr and Terry Porter, returning Greg Anthony and Portland’s pick in the upcoming draft (Zach Randolph). Later, the Heat and Hornets use the Spurs’ space to alleviate luxury tax troubles ahead of the Eddie Jones sign-and-trade.
San Antonio would re-sign and deal Samaki Walker to the Hornets (already fielding Elden Campbell and P.J. Brown) in exchange for rookie center Jamaal Magliore and (shock horror) Derrick Coleman, a Charlotte cap millstone who gives San Antonio points and rebounds next to David Robinson until the duo’s giant contracts (nearly $20 million combined) expire in 2003.
Grant Hill was on crutches when Tim Duncan chose Orlando, the timeline doesn’t stray and Tim has to do the best he can with centers John Amaechi and Andrew DeClercq. With Mike Miller, Troy Hudson, that whole crew. It isn’t much, and unfortunately for Magic fans, Duncan agreed to the same three-year opt-out with ORL that he actually agreed to in 2000 with San Antonio.
The Duncan-less Spurs haven’t signed any cap-cloggers in his absence. Only four rookie deals (Z-Bo, Mags ahead of his All-Star year, Manu, Parker) alongside the usual finds (Bruce Bowen, 2000 camp signee Raja Bell, Stephen Jackson) and holdover Duncan buddy Malik Rose. Room for Tim’s return in 2003, plus another max slot.
Draft Tim Duncan. After that, stay alive.
ANTONIO MCDYESS STAYS IN PHOENIX
Rookies only had three-year contracts back then. By the end of Year Two a stud could make his future free agent ambitions known, it’s why Kevin Garnett signed a $121 million deal before his 121st NBA start, it’s why the Denver Nuggets were convinced they couldn’t afford to re-sign McDyess, the No. 2 pick in the 1995 NBA draft.
Denver panicked and dealt McDyess to Phoenix before his third season. The Suns not only had McDyess for a playoff campaign in 1998, but also his Bird Rights ahead of an offseason that would see yer Suns replete with free agent cash.
During that offseason, though, McDyess panicked. Nobody expected him to turn down Phoenix’s eventual max offer, but while the Suns were courting Antonio’s future teammates the Nuggies swooped in and glommed a verbal ‘yes’ from the unrestricted free agent.
“I didn’t want to sign there,” said McDyess, a forward. “I sort of had an in-between mind at that point.”
Problem was, he had given a verbal commitment to the Nuggets, and they had flown him in on the eve of training camp to sign the contract.
“When I got to Denver, I just felt like that wasn’t the place for me,” he said. “So I called Jason Kidd (his teammate in Phoenix the previous season) and told him, ‘I don’t know if I want to sign here, man.’ He said, ‘Just stay right there and don’t do nothing you don't want to do. I will be there soon.’”
Kidd, along with Suns teammates George McCloud and Rex Chapman, chartered a plane and flew through a blizzard into Denver that night.
McCloud and Chapman weren’t even Suns yet, only free agents under Bird rights. McCloud was about to sign for the minimum to accommodate free agents, just as Chapman did in Phoenix the two previous seasons ($574,500 total).
Chapman would sign six-year, $22.1 deal with Phoenix eventually, but like McDyess his contract couldn’t become official until the new Suns were acquired. The Nuggets, flush with free hockey tickets, disrupted the plan.
“I was at a (Colorado Avalanche) hockey game (in the owner’s suite) and I wasn’t going to sign until they got there,” McDyess said.
But McDyess said Dan Issel, Denver’s coach and general manager at the time, knew Kidd’s rescue party was on the way, and instructed security and ticket sellers at McNichols Arena to keep Kidd and company out of the building.
“I mean, it was a blizzard outside, and they wouldn't let those guys inside the arena. They kept them out in the snow,” McDyess said. “It was crazy times.”
McDyess, true to his character, honored his verbal commitment to the Nuggets and played four more seasons with them. But he’s always regretted the decision he made on that snowy night.
Let’s melt some snow.
Tom Gugliotta was Phoenix’s consolation prize, instead he heads to Denver as a free agent. McDyess remains in Phoenix, on a verbal guarantee, while the Suns use cap space to lure Vlade Divac. Keeping the team’s 1999 first-round pick, as the Suns don’t need to sign-and-trade for Luc Longley anymore.
Too timid to take on Metta World Peace, the Suns draft James Posey and build the two-way banger of Scott Skiles’ dreams. Prior to the draft the Suns also dealt the rights’ to Dallas’ pick (No. 9, originally Shawn Marion) to Chicago in exchange for Brent Barry. Jerry Krause is smitten with Marion but Chicago uses its selection on Corey Maggette.
(No, I haven’t already written a Krause-in-’99 fan-fiction called ‘Chin de Siècle.’)
Denver loses McDyess but signs Gugliotta to a cheaper rate. The Nuggets had to clear cap room for McDyess’ return but in this scenario gets to keep capable center Dean Garrett and forever Sixth Man candidate Bobby Jackson, along with its own pick in the 1999 draft, which Denver uses on Richard Hamilton. Denver also owns Milwaukee’s first-round pick from the (say it with me) Elliot Perry trade. At No. 18, Dan Issel selects “Ron Artest.”
Nick Van Exel, Googs, Metta, Tony Battie, Rip Hamilton, Bobby Jackson, Danny Fortson, Eric Williams and Raef LaFrentz are, I assure you, “not bad.”
McDyess stays healthy in Phoenix, never becomes a Knick, never visits the Pistons, never leaves Arizona. He’s in the Ring of Honor, people love him there. He won three playoff games in 12 years, but let me tell you, the guy can’t walk down the streets of Tucson without mobs accumulating.
SIXERS MAKE ALLEN IVERSON A PISTON
Except that this was a very real deal. In its most well-known incarnation:
Eddie Jones, Glen Rice, Jerome Williams and Dale Ellis were Philly-bound;
Iverson and Geiger headed to Detroit; Jerry Stackhouse, Christian Laettner
and Travis Knight routed to Charlotte; and Anthony Mason, Toni Kukoc and
Todd Fuller dispatched to the LA Lakers.
As [Sixers owner Pat] Croce himself told ESPN The Magazine’s Tom Friend: “It came close, brother, it came close.”
So close that Croce, siding with coach Larry Brown, rang Iverson with the word:
“I did not want to trade Allen Iverson, but I could no longer defend him because he was breaking Larry’s rules,” said Croce, who personally called Iverson to inform him of the would-be trade. “Allen just told me he didn’t want to go. He wanted to be a professional.”
To complete the trade, however, the Sixers needed cooperation from Geiger, whose six-year, $47 million contract contains a clause that says awards him a 15 percent pay raise -- another $3.3 million on a contract that expires after the 2002-03 season -- if he’s traded. Under the NBA's complicated salary cap rules, the trade wouldn’t work unless Geiger waived the so-called “trade-kicker.”
“I looked at Detroit and didn’t think Allen and I would’ve been better off there,” Geiger said. “So the decision was easy.”
Even after Geiger squashed it, the Sixers pushed to deal AI.
Had the 7-foot, barbed-wire tattoo pioneer waived his no-trade clause, free agent Eddie Jones would become a Sixer via signed-and-traded max deal. The immediate punishment would come in Miami, where Pat Riley would kick in door after door after not only missing out on Jones but 2001 All-Star Anthony Mason. For once, Miami is on the inside looking out.
A Sixer team featuring the aging Glen Rice, emerging Theo Ratliff and Jones at home in a lead role would have made the playoffs under Brown, but not spectacularly. Ratliff went down for the season midway through the real 2000-01 and the Sixers were able to pair him with Kukoc in exchange for Dikembe Mutombo, a deal that doesn’t exist in our timeline. Larry Brown already traded for Tyrone Hill, he’s out of ideas.
Could be worse. Could be Detroit.
Geiger and his barbed-wire tattoo were out, they never stayed healthy, luckily the Pistons acquired center insurance in the form of Ben Wallace via the Grant Hill sign-and-trade earlier in the summer. George Irvine’s real-life 2000-01 Pistons led the NBA in pace (94.7, which woulda ranked 32nd last season) and were top-eight in defense but without the presence of the Philadelphia team Iverson was just jettisoned, publicly, from.
The only thing lifting this Detroit squad into the playoffs is a superhuman, MVP-effort from the pissed off but also sad, actual 2000-01 MVP. Luckily, Allen Iverson is emotional.
Rick Carlisle and Cliff Robinson hit the next season, in 2002 Detroit still uses its full MLE on Chauncey Billups, Joe Dumars assures Iverson it can work, and he’s right.
Iverson and Ben and Billups make the next five consecutive Finals before Bulls GM John Paxson signs Iverson and his two championship rings to a bloated free agent deal in 2006.
Back in 2000: Anthony Mason is perfect for the Laker triangle but Mase might not agree with as much while at its point, and may not last the season under Phil Jackson.
This is the year Miami loses Alonzo Mourning to the start of his kidney woes, the Heat stay competitive with Jamal Mashburn, Brian Grant and P.J. Brown but badly misses the sort of playmaking Mase (an All-Star in 2001) provided. Jackson’s Lakers should trade Mason to Pat Riley’s Heat for Brown, whom Jackson coveted while coaching the Bulls, but nah, Brown goes to the Sixers for Aaron McKie.
Jackson probably trades Anthony Mason to Orlando for Pat Garrity and Los Angeles makes the 2001 Finals where the Lakers meet Toronto, briefly.
The Hornets would still end up in New Orleans but Baron Davis and Jerry Stackhouse eventually got a podcast out of it. Mostly about Laettner.
WEBBER STAYS IN D.C.
Sacramento swingman Mitch Richmond was on the trade block throughout 1997-98. Kings being the Kings, he was fine with that:
“I’m just happy when I hear the rumors.”
Now that’s what I call, a Sacramento King.
Several teams wanted a shot at Richmond, Sacto GM Geoff Petrie dragged it out.
“When I step up to the microphone to say I traded Mitch Richmond, I want to have something to say.”
Even with this qualifier in place, it was a surprise Richmond stayed on his Kings to the trade deadline, let alone past it.
And it was a surprise Webber was on the block at all, C-Webb had his hiccups in D.C. but few thought Wizards GM Wes Unseld would actually trade his franchise player. Yet, two months after Webber turned 25, Washington astonished the NBA in dealing Webber to Sacramento for Richmond (about to turn 33) and Otis Thorpe (always 36).
The trade took place in the middle of the playoffs, the night Sinatra died, the night of the ‘Seinfeld’ finale, we didn’t need any content, nobody asked for any trades. Had Unseld and Petrie waited a bit, big moves could still take place on draft night, just ahead of the 1998 NBA lockout.
When, in our what-if, the Wizards get Eddie Jones. Webber stays.
The Lakers get Otis Thorpe, Kings draft pick Jason Williams, and Mitch Richmond.
The Kings get Juwan Howard, Elden Campbell, Nick Van Exel, Ben Wallace.
Sacramento is not the beneficiary of an all-time lopsided sports deal anymore. No Vlade. Corliss Williamson comes back for the minimum, same as Jon Barry, and this is the year 1996 draft pick Predrag Stojakovic appears.
At the next trade deadline Petrie spins Campbell to Utah for Shandon Anderson, Howard Eisley and the better of Utah’s two first-round picks (Andrei Kirilenko). Corliss eventually turns into Doug Christie, Tariq Abdul-Wahad becomes Hersey Hawkins, the team is very good, not great, yet sources an expectation: Sacramento hasn’t missed the playoffs this century.
The Lakers’ lockout year featured out of shape Shaq and fitful Kobe, angry at each other over shot attempts and literal labor battles. It was so bad the team hired Dennis Rodman and Kurt Rambis in the same month, cosmic chasms an aging Mitch Richmond and wild Jason Williams could not fix. Otis Thorpe is suspended five separate times for laughing on the bench.
Richmond is nearly washed but the Hornets still need a shooting guard and at the ‘99 deadline deal Derrick Coleman and a first-round draft pick to the Lakers for Richmond and Thorpe. The pick vaults six spots in the lottery and the newly-hired Phil Jackson agrees with Jerry West: Los Angeles should draft Lamar Odom.
For the next decade the Odom-Kobe-J-Will-Shaq-led Los Angeles Lakers win the only titles Washington doesn’t.
The Wizards balk at losing Ben Wallace but Webber and Terry Davis Sr. are more than enough to subsist on up front, though the group falters during the lockout season Unseld cribs point guard Andre Miller out of the lottery to pair with Eddie Jones. Unseld deals Rod Strickland to Portland for Isaiah Rider.
Annoyed with their practice habits, Charlotte GM Michael Jordan sends Ricky Davis and Brad Miller to Washington in exchange for Jahidi White and Calbert Cheaney. The Wizards win three championships and cannabis has been decriminalized on a federal level since 2006.
KRAUSE DUMPS SCOTTIE PIPPEN FOR SHAWN KEMP
With Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen’s relationship at a low point, we can pretend MJ would have been indifferent over losing the teammate he knew best.
Jordan understood he paired expertly with Pippen’s array of skills. Pippen was younger and similar enough to take over the more dominant aspects of Jordan’s pre-retirement package (crazy rebounds, assists, blocks and steals, on-ball defense) and let MJ, now in his mid-30s, concentrate on maintaining that 30-point average.
If Jerry Krause adds another talent, no matter how Dunk-a-licious, there is no guarantee that Jordan returns as a free agent in 1996. Jordan spent mornings lifting weights with Pippen and Ron Harper, he wanted people his age he could relate to, he may have found that with the Knicks. We’ll have to prevent this.
Pippen wasn’t sent to Seattle ahead of the 1994 NBA draft because the SuperSonics couldn’t guarantee the return of Eddie Jones with the No. 10 pick. However, Jerry Krause had a thing for Jalen Rose’s dad when Jimmy Walker was a top pick out of Providence, and an even bigger thing for lengthy, lefty point guards. Rose, whom Krause traded for in 2002, was available at No. 10.
So what you would get, sports fans, was Pippen and Gary Payton out in Seattle with George Karl, inspiring future blog and book content, winning 66 games a year and going out in the second round. Eddie Jones in El Lay, and Michael Jordan returning to a Bulls team featuring Toni Kukoc, Shawn Kemp, and Jalen Rose in braces. The Dobermans!
Ron Harper still signs as a free agent in the 1994 offseason, and with Kemp there is no need for Dennis Rodman in this timeline: Chicago deals Will Perdue for a draft pick and uses the savings to re-sign Scott Williams.
I know you expect something splashier than “Scott Williams,” but you should trust the fan-fic author of ‘Fully Krausened: The Time-Traveler’s Guide to a Minimum Eight-Peat’ to capably work inside Jerry Krause’s head.
MINNESOTA NEVER TRADES RAY ALLEN FOR STEPHON MARBURY
In 1996 the Bucks drafted Stephon Marbury, who put on Milwaukee’s cap and immediately wept tears of joy.
Marbury melts Milwaukee’s hearts, GM Mike Dunleavy calls off the trade. The Timberwolves aren’t upset, team president Kevin McHale was crying when Dunleavy called him, McHale telling Mike that he couldn’t be the guy to take the Bucks cap off Marbury’s head. The interview really shook these guys up.
With Minnesota’s blessing, the deal is off.
Steph starts in Milwaukee alongside Anthony Peeler, whom Dunleavy rescued from his buddies at the Lakers (trying to clear cap space for Shaq) for a pair of second-round picks. The Bucks make the playoffs in 1997 but, fearful of impending contract extensions for Marbury and Vin Baker, deal Baker before 1997-98 to the Pistons, returning Theo Ratliff and Aaron McKie.
(Vancouver offered Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Bryant Reeves and what turned into an unprotected first-round pick in 2003 for Baker and Lee Mayberry but Dunleavy insisted on McKie, who can defend and shoot at off guard while at the same time minding the temperament of a fire-first backcourt mate.)
The Bucks falter before George Karl elbows in to rescue the franchise in 1999, ahead of Marbury’s contract extension. Marbury and Karl get along famously, Steph outranks the rest of his generation in the post-MJ sponsorship battles, AND1 is a top-two shoe company by 2003, the Bucks rule the East, routinely.
Gary Payton joins the team in 2004 in the search for a ring. Glenn Robinson’s career is salvaged by Marbury’s touch in the pick and roll, somewhere in Greece a child dribbles a basketball along with the broadcast of an internationally televised Big Dog performance and decides he wants to be a Buck for life.
Your favorite Marbury-in-Milwaukee memory was when Steph embarrassed Sacramento’s Jon Barry during overtime of the Bucks’ lone win in the 2001 Finals. Nearly 200,000 people watched that series.
Allen and Garnett would get on like treble and bass, they wouldn’t have to like each other to succeed fabulously. And unlike Marbury it wouldn’t offend Allen that Garnett snuck ahead of max contract ceilings.
Ray is the guy that negotiated his own max deal in 1999, in the first week there were “max deals,” cutting out an agent and saving himself over $2.36 million:
“I don’t need somebody skimming millions off the top,” said Allen, who chose instead to pay a team of lawyers, including celebrity lawyer Johnnie Cochran, a business manager and an accountant at an hourly rate of up to $500.
“When agents see what I’m doing, they’ll say, ‘Well, he’s a flagship for something that we do not necessarily agree with. It’s going to take away our livelihood,’” Allen said. “And I think it’s something important for this league and for the players, when we’re smart enough to take care of our own money.”
Allen negotiated directly with team owner Herb Kohl, the senior senator from Wisconsin, because the NBA’s new labor accord sets limits on what players can earn based on years of service.
At the time, George Karl said Allen “has shown a lot of people that you may not need agents”
Jeremiah DeBerry, Allen’s lawyer, said agents are necessary only for “middle of the road guys.”
“For the rookies and for the high profile guys who are going to get the maximum, certainly this is the way to go,” DeBerry said. “It just makes sense.”
(When it came time to negotiate his next max contract with the SuperSonics, Allen employed Lon Babby as his agent.)
Allen would slide right in with Minnesota, who in real life were about to trade shooting guard Isaiah Rider for two blips and a bleep (Bill Curley, tweener guard James Robinson, a first-rounder McHale turned into Paul Grant) just to get Rider off the team. Terry Porter returns and starts capably at point guard through the end of the century, when McHale takes the same bet on Chauncey Billups (after four teams in two seasons) the Wolves took in our timeline.
It’s a Big Three, and it wins a title in 2004 over the Indiana Pacers.
The series shown on four-hour tape-delay on ABC (though in real time on Spike TV) after Kevin Garnett says “cheat-ass motherfuckers” on live air during ABC’s broadcast of the Wolves’ deciding Game 5 win over the Lakers in the Western finals.
To replenish lost revenue, the league contracts the New Orleans Hornets.
McHale jokes about his refusal to “change horses midstream” during the trophy presentation, to thunderous applause. George W. Bush wins re-election with 323 electoral college votes.
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