Sam Bowie

Sam Bowie
Player information
Full name	Samuel Paul Bowie
birthday	March 17, 1961
place of birth	Lebanon , United States
size	216 cm
position	center
college	Kentucky
NBA draft	1984 , 2nd pick, Portland Trail Blazers
Jersey number	31
Clubs as active
1984-1989 Portland Trail Blazers 1989-1993 New Jersey Nets 1993-1995 Los Angeles Lakers

Samuel (Sam) Paul Bowie (* 17th March 1961 in Lebanon ( Pennsylvania )) is a retired American basketball player on the position of the center . While Bowie wasn't a bad player, he was best known as the player drafted between Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan .

Bowie was one of the best high school players ever in high school. He averaged 28 points and 18 rebounds per game and was appointed to the US team for the Olympic Games in 1980. To date, he is the last player with no experience as a college or professional player to receive this honor. After three years and multiple leg injuries, he left the University of Kentucky to play in the NBA.

He participated in the 1984 draft . To this day, the 1984 vintage is considered possibly the best in history. The first choice had the Houston Rockets , who chose the Nigerian Hakeem Olajuwon, who was later voted 12 times as an All-Star and is counted among the 50 best players in NBA history. The second player was allowed to choose the Portland Trail Blazers , who chose Bowie. As a third team, the Chicago Bulls chose Michael Jordan, who later became five-time MVP who led the Bulls to six championships. The later all-stars Charles Barkley , Alvin Robertson , Otis Thorpe , Kevin Willis and John Stockton were also to be signed in the 84 draft. The Trail Blazers decision is considered to be one of the worst ever made. Numerous experts were concerned with the question of whether the Trail Blazers would have become the dominant team with Jordan in the 1990s, since they were the better team compared to the Bulls at the time of the '84 draft. Nevertheless, the decision seemed reasonable for Bowie at the time of the draft, especially since the Trail Blazers in the previous year with Clyde Drexler a shooting guard had drafted in a class. Nor is it certain that the Bulls would not have chosen Bowie too, had they had the first choice. For his achievements in his first year as a professional, Bowie was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team .

After Bowie played four years with bad luck injuries for the Trail Blazers and averaged 10.5 points per game, he was traded to the New Jersey Nets in 1989 along with a draft pick against Buck Williams . There he completed his four most successful seasons, in which he was largely spared injuries, with an average of 12.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. After he moved to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1993 , where he suffered from injury, he resigned as a basketball player in 1995. Throughout his entire NBA career, he averaged 10.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.78 blocks and hit 30.2% of his three-point throws.

Web links

• Sam Bowie - player profile on NBA.com
• Sam Bowie - player profile on basketball-reference.com