How it All Works "What If Jordan, Kobe, and LeBron played in the same era together"

So how does one create an alternate NBA universe? Well, I used AI, but after some trial runs I realized I needed to feed it data. Before we dive into that, let’s start with the main component: the yearly draft.

For the Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James storyline, I had to go back to the 1984 Draft and remove MJ. By doing that, all the draft picks after #2 Sam Bowie got bumped up one spot.

This meant Sam Perkins was now #3 instead of 4, Charles Barkley was #4 instead of 5, and so on. In this world we only focus on the first round—so players drafted after that still go to their original real-life teams.

As far as these first-round players moving up, that meant everyone landed elsewhere. Perkins went to the Bulls at #3, while Barkley went to the Mavericks at #4.

The draft is where everything changes. How does removing one player shift the entire NBA? Well, for starters in 1984, 20+ players all went to new teams.

These players will stay with their new teams until their first real-life move. For example, Perkins plays for the Bulls until his move to the Lakers in 1990. Barkley plays in Dallas until his first real-life move to Phoenix in 1992.

So that’s the ripple effect of the 1984 Draft. But what about future drafts? Before that, we need to determine how teams performed under these new changes.

Since AI needs data to make decisions, I had to give each team a value, which would result in how well they did that year.

I took each team’s five best players and calculated value based on their actual average stats for that season. A player’s value was determined by five categories: points, steals, blocks, rebounds, and assists.

• Steals & Blocks = 4 points each

• Rebounds & Assists = 2 points each

• Points = 1 point each

To keep things simple, I rounded stats up or down. For example, 1.4 steals = 4 points, while 1.5 steals = 8 points. A player needed to play at least 10 games to qualify (so, for instance, David Robinson’s 6-game 1996–97 season was excluded).

Using this system, the 1984–85 Boston Celtics had the best record in the league. Their top five—Dennis Johnson (46), Danny Ainge (39), Larry Bird (77), Kevin McHale (50), Robert Parish (52)—added up to a team value of 264. That rating made them the #1 seed in the East with a 65–17 record.

To keep league totals accurate, I multiplied the number of teams by 82 games, then divided by 2. For 23 teams in 1984–85: 23 × 82 ÷ 2 = 943 total wins/losses available.

In this world stats determine status meaning your rating will determine if you are an All-Star.  The 12 best players based on rating from each Conference become all-stars.  With the best player getting the MVP. 

With ratings calculated, we can now build the playoff brackets. For example, in that first season the Celtics (rating 264) were the #1 seed, and their first-round opponent was the Cleveland Cavaliers (rating 202, record 35–47).

At this stage, AI simulates the playoff series only. Everything else—drafts, records, ratings—I do manually with a calculator. I also add storyline flavor, like: “The Celtics entered the 1985 playoffs as not only the #1 seed, but the defending champions.”

Back to the draft: 1984 was easy—we just moved players up one spot. But since team finishes are now different, their draft order changes too.

From 1985 onward, we use the real draft lottery results. For example, in 1987 the Spurs had the 4th worst record and won the lottery in real life. In this universe, the Jazz had the 4th worst record—so Utah wins the lottery. That means David Robinson goes to the Jazz, and since he played his entire career with the Spurs in real life, here he stays with Utah for that same stretch.

Playoff teams’ draft positions are based on their record. For example, in 1987 the Knicks had the worst record of any playoff team (36–46), so they get the first pick after the lottery teams.

The same process applies to later drafts where we “insert” or “remove” legends:

• 1996 Draft → Kobe Bryant is removed, and everyone after him moves up one spot.

• 2004 Draft → Kobe is inserted at #13 (his real draft slot), bumping everyone after him down one. The last pick of the first round becomes a second-rounder.

• 2005 Draft → Michael Jordan is inserted at #3 (his real 1984 draft slot), bumping everyone after down one spot.

And so on, all the way through.

That’s the framework for the blog storyline: we start with the 1984 Draft, and end with the 2024–25 season.

Forty years of NBA history… ReWritten!