Anonymous/Associated Press

Close your eyes and imagine Michael Jordan in a Sixers uniform. Now do it for the Mavericks.

It seems weird, doesn't it? Well, it almost happened.

Former Bulls general manager Rod Thorn, who selected Jordan with the third overall pick in the 1984 NBA draft, said the Sixers and Mavericks both made a "strong offer" for the selection that ultimately became His Airness.

"Philadelphia had made a strong offer for Michael. Dallas had made a strong offer for Michael," former Bulls general manager Rod Thorn told David Kaplan of ESPN Chicago (h/t NBC Sports Chicago's Michael Allardyce).

"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."

The Houston Rockets selected Hakeem Olajuwon with the top pick in the draft, and the Portland Trail Blazers followed with Sam Bowie. That left Thorn with an obvious answer at No. 3, a pick that forever turned around the fortunes of the Bulls franchise.

"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 [UNC head coach] Dean [Smith] 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?" Thorn said.

"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.'"

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It's unclear what the offers for Jordan would have been. The Mavericks had the No. 4 pick, which they used to take Sam Perkins, and the Sixers selected Charles Barkley at No. 5. While these trade offers would allow fans to envision a world where Barkley and Jordan were teammates, that would not likely have been the case.

That said, it would have created a more interesting dynamic with Jordan teaming up with Julius Erving and Moses Malone on a team that went 58-24 on their way to a conference finals berth. There were some who felt Jordan was the next Dr. J when he was drafted, so watching them as teammates would have been captivating.

The Mavericks offered a far less interesting group of supporting talent. No one's especially clamoring for an MJ-Mark Aguirre pairing, though that would have given Dallas one of the best one-two scoring punches in basketball.

As it stands, though, Thorn never seriously considered the offers. So all that's left to do is think about the what-ifs.