What are you favorite sports "what ifs?"

[fatmenace]

Simmons had an interesting section in his book about NBA what ifs. I thought it would be an interesting discussion.

What are your favorite what ifs in sports?

My first one would be: What if Jimmy Johnson didn't leave Dallas? Everyone assumes 4 or 5 Super Bowls, but who knows. San Fran was a pretty salty team. I would have liked to see that.

My other one: Simmons touched on this, but what if Derek Fisher doesn't hit the shot with .4 seconds left against SA? In the same vein, but what if Ginobili doesn't foul Dirk? Are we talking about another two titles for SA? I think so .

What if the reporter never looks inside Mark McGwire's locker and sees the Andro. Is the steroids controversy pushed back another ten years?

[gk]

Since 2/3 are related to your favorite teams, I figure I can pull this:

* What if Cleveland doesn't pull the #1 overall pick for Lebron. Is there still a franchise in Cleveland? Maybe they move to OKC and the Sonics stay in Seattle.

* What if either A) Art Modell doesn't move the team to Baltimore (or just sells it), or B) the NFL just awards Baltimore the expansion franchise (doesn't this make 1000% more sense)? Do I root for Ray Lewis?

* What if the Cavs don't make the trade that netted them Varajao and Drew Gooden in 2004? Related: what if the Cavs hadn't traded their first round pick to Charlotte for the rights to Jahidi White?

Had the Cavs not grabbed Varajao / Gooden in what was Lebron's rookie year, they'd have been much much worse, therefore in much much better shape for the 2005 draft. Let's say that they net the 6th overall pick (they ended up having the 13th, which Charlotte used to draft Sean May). Assuming they didn't trade their pick for Jahidi White (), they could have drafted Charlie Villanueva or Channing Frye, giving them respectable big men along side Z. With a little luck, who knows? Maybe they end up at 4 and can draft Chris Paul or Deron Williams, and the Cavs win 10 championships in a row starting in 2007.

[mayor]

- What if Bonds played his whole career for the Pirates? Would the Pirates have won a WS? Would Bonds still have chosen the path that leads to destruction? Would we have world peace?

- What if the MLB strike of 94-95 led to a salary cap in baseball like in the NFL? Would I still be a baseball fan? Would the Pirates still be irrelevant? (probably)

- What if Coach Steele didn't try to "create an attitude" at Baylor? Would Steele still be making picks for DVRFFL? Would Baylor still be irrelevant? (probably)

This is just making me upset. Thanks Chad.