The "what if" moment that changed every NBA team forever

Phoenix Suns: What if the Suns won the coin flip to draft Lew Alcinder?

The Phoenix Suns rank as the most successful NBA team to have never won a championship, but a painful what-if could have changed that. In 1968, the Suns and Milwaukee Bucks were coming off their first season in the NBA, and both predictably fared poorly. As a result, it came down to a coin flip to see who would win the number one pick and who would pick second.

Much like with the 2023 NBA draft lottery and Victor Wembanyama, the top prize was a generational prospect. Lew Alcinder, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, was the best player in the country by a wide margin at the time, and drafting him would have been huge for the Suns.

Unfortunately for the Suns, the Bucks won the coin flip. In six seasons in Milwaukee, Alcinder led them to one of the most dominant stretches in NBA history, which included a Finals win in 1969 and nearly repeating the following season.

While he later left Milwaukee to join the Lakers, had Phoenix drafted him, it is possible that he might have stayed longer, given that Arizona has historically been a popular off-season destination for players. Since then, the Suns have assembled several great teams, but none has won a title. Hopefully, the core of Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant, will fare better in the 2024–25 season.