America's Team: The Dallas-Mavericks?

[Coiler]

A weird sports WI I thought. Turning the Mavericks into something like the Cowboys of basketball could happen with a few divergences. In the mid-1980s OTL, the Mavericks were consistently good and even took the Magic Johnson Lakers to seven games in the playoffs. So where's the missing piece of the puzzle? It's obvious who, but how?

The playoff-level Mavericks picked fourth in 1984 because of yet another dubious trade the Cavaliers did.

Have Patrick Ewing declare for the draft in 1984 as he almost did. This makes it guaranteed that him and Olajuwon are the top two picks-Portland can get the center it wanted and have a future hall-of-famer regardless of who goes first. The Bulls look at the UNC stars and pick Sam Perkins, who IOTL was one of those "amazing in college but merely good in the pros" players. The Mavericks with the fourth pick select the other UNC star and the rest is history.

Some more butterflies:

• Perkins would probably get tarred with an undeserved "bust" brush because he got picked ahead of Jordan.
• Sam Bowie, like OTL sixth pick Melvin Turpin, is mostly forgotten about.
• Charles Barkley's career probably goes worse if he gets picked by a bad team instead of the good OTL Sixers.
• Jerry Sloan's (RIP) string of success might get butterflied if someone else takes John Stockton.
• Basketball Methuselah Kevin Willis might also get dubbed a "bust" if he's picked ahead of one of the future hall of famers.

 

[jenalysis]

It would be tough without national TV.

the Cowboys had the benefit of a lot of national TV- they always had the Thanksgiving game, and often the 4pm national game on Sunday. Even with that, they didn't get the moniker until the late 70s, and it was a bit overstated.

The other team that reguarly got called America's team was the Braves in the 80s-90s. TBS carrying the Braves nationally was the main reason, as the on-field product wasn't good until the 90s, after the America's team moniker stuck. The Braves had such an advantage that dealing with that was a sticking point for their sale to AOL.

the Mavericks would have a tough time getting this sort of coverage. They play a lot of west coast games due to being in Western conference, which are late at night. If they get Jordan , that helps a good bit, but MJ would be a different player under Don Nelson- who wasn't a believer in the triangle. also Portland with Drexler and say Hakeem would be a force. The Eastern conference would be seen as weak, maybe the Hawks make an NBA final at some point?