Mavericks, 76ers made NBA Draft Day offers to Bulls for Michael Jordan

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The Bulls were lucky to nab Michael Jordan with the third overall pick, but in an era where bigmen were valued over guards they weren't the only ones with their eye on the future GOAT.

"Philadelphia [76ers] had made a strong offer for Michael. Dallas [Mavericks] had made a strong offer for Michael," former Bulls general manager Rod Thorn told David Kaplan on his radio show.

"There were a couple of other teams that had inquired about the pick, their offers weren't as good as those two but yeah, there were people who were certainly interested in Michael."

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Fortunately Thorn resisted those trade offers and took Jordan. People like Dean Smith and Bobby Knight were singing Jordan's praises early on, so it wasn't exactly a secret.

"I would go every year when I was doing my scouting and when I was a GM and go to North Carolina at the end of the year. Dean would let me sit in their film room and watch any tape they had, a lot of the final scouting on ACC players in particular was done at the time," Thorn said.

"The year that Jordan came out and I'm watching the tape and he is glaringly the best player of all these players. I went in to talk to Dean at the end of the day, and I said you know this guy is so good on tape and the few times I've seen him play in person, what do you think?

"Dean said 'I'd never say it publicly because that's not how we do it here at North Carolina, but he is the most talented player I've had.'"

And Knight coached Jordan in the Olympics and Jordan at the Olympic trials.

Fortunately the Portland Trail Blazers told Chicago they weren't picking Jordan a month in advance.

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