'84 Draft vs '96 Draft vs '03 Draft

April 16, 2020 Phillip Barnes

Let’s do a classic who would win between these three drafts, and see who would win.

Here are the rules:

Each team will only be made up of players actually drafted in the years stated. If they weren’t drafted, then they don’t play.
All players involved are assumed to be in their primes, not some older, slower version of themselves. So, we’re not taking the Lakers LeBron, or the Rockets Barkley.
Each team will have five starters, and five bench players. No players will play out of position unless they did anyways (Melo, for instance, has played the 4 for a LONG time, so it’s O.K. to slot him there), but other players who played certain positions for a majority of their careers will only play those positions.
The head coaches will be selected from the team that won the most championships during that era. The coaches had to have coached one of the players on the team in order to eligible for the team. For example, because Greg Popovich did not coach any of the people in any of the drafts directly except for Matt Bonner (who won’t make the ‘03 team) he can’t coach the ‘03 team. It has to be a coach that won with a player on the team.
The rules they will play under are the rules of the 90’s, when players were actually able to play defense. Hand checking is allowed, and fouls will be called less, leading to people having to legitimately guard their man, and finish in traffic.

Now, on to the teams:

‘84 Draft Team:

PG: John Stockton, SG: Michael Jordan, SF: Jerome Kersey, PF: Charles Barkley, C: Hakeem Olajuwon

Bench: Alvin Robertson, Sam Perkins, Kevin Willis, Jay Campbell, Vern Fleming

Coach: Phil Jackson (Chicago Bulls)

PG: Allen Iverson, SG: Kobe Bryant, SF: Peja Stojakovic, PF: Jermaine O’Neal, C: Ben Wallace (Undrafted)

Bench: Ray Allen, Steve Nash, Marcus Camby, Shareef Abdul-Rahim, Antoine Walker

Coach: Larry Brown (Sixers/Pistons)

PG: Mo Williams, SG: Dwayne Wade, SF: LeBron James, PF: Carmelo Anthony, C: Chris Bosh

Bench: David West, Kyle Korver, Chris Kaman, Josh Howard, Leandro Barbosa

Coach: Erik Spolestra (Heat)