That’s what happens when you pass on a legend
The 1978 NBA Draft was legendary for one main reason: Larry Bird was a junior at Indiana State but technically eligible to be drafted since he had spent his first year (sort of anyway) at Indiana.
Either five teams didn’t understand that or weren't willing to take the risk. Red Auerbach picked Bird at #6 and was willing to wait and also to risk that Bird would not sign before the 1979 draft and therefore be eligible to be re-drafted, if you will.
Interestingly, if he had chosen to wait until 1979, Bird would have been either the first or second pick and there’s a chance that L.A. would have taken him at #1 rather than Magic Johnson. One or the other would have gone at #2 presumably, which would have put one as a Laker and the other as a Chicago Bull.
This video looks at what happened to the five players who went before Bird in the ‘78 draft.
Those players are Minnesota’s Mychal Thompson, father of Klay, UNC’s Phil Ford, Rick Robey from Kentucky, Micheal Ray Richardson of Montana and Purvis Short from Jackson State.
There are a million-and-one what-ifs here obviously, but think about this one: what if the Lakers had had the courage to take Bird in 1978? They would have still had the #1 pick in 1979, which came in a trade with Utah, meaning that that team could have had Bird, Magic and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the same team.
