NBA Trade: 11 shocking NBA trades that almost happened

3. Michael Jordan - Houston Rockets

This was a situation that involved quite a few "ifs" and "buts" but was too big to ignore nevertheless. A team of Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon. Yes, you read that right.

Houston had drafted Ralph Sampson with the first pick in 1983 and also had the number one pick in the following year's draft as well. They used that pick to draft Olajuwon.

Sampson had a stellar first season and won Rookie Of The Year. He was one of the hottest prospects in the league and the Portland Trailblazers, who held the second pick in the 1984 draft offered their pick as well as Clyde Drexler for Sampson.

Houston though was convinced that Sampson would be the perfect partner for Olajuwon since there had been a big man trend in prior decades and decided to decline this offer.

Olajuwon later stated that if the deal had gone through, the Rockets would have used the number two pick to draft Jordan.

If the trade had actually taken place, we would have got to see three MVP calibre players playing on the same team. This would have also led to possibly the greatest dynasty since Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics.

Still, we did get to see the three go head-to-head with each other for over a decade and can be extremely satisfied with the epic battles they produced, so it probably worked out for the best from a neutral perspective.