‘Didn’t allow it’ – Deion Sanders reveals he was close to playing for the Atlanta Hawks

Deion Sanders has revealed that he could have been a three-sport athlete and played in the NBA if he hadn’t been stopped.

Coach Prime, as he is famously known, is the only individual to ever play in the MLB World Series and the NFL Super Bowl. He went to the World Series with the Atlanta Braves, and his two Super Bowl rings came with different teams.

He played in both these professional leagues concurrently during the early 1990s, and that too at a high level, which is why he earned a lot of popularity among sports fans across the world.

Currently, he is the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes and he was recently seen at the Denver Nuggets’ training camp talking to players. It was there that Sanders made his NBA admission.

Sanders reveals he could have played for Hawks

Sanders was an All-State honoree in basketball, baseball and football, but it was the latter two that he decided to pursue professionally. However, Sanders stated that he wanted to also play in the NBA and even spoke to the Atlanta Hawks GM.

While meeting the Nuggets team, DeMar DeRozan asked the NFL legend how he managed to play baseball and football at a high level.

“Some of y’all played two sports in high school right? Why’d you stop? Cause some fool told you what you couldn’t do that he ain’t ever done before,” replied Sanders to DeRozan.

The two-time Super Bowl winner then stated that he loves basketball and wanted to continue playing, but he wasn’t allowed to play the sport in college.

“They was going to let me play for the Hawks one time, just to play three sports and they didn’t allow me to do it, but I wanted to do it. I told the General Manager, ‘I’m going to give you 10, just off the strength,'” said Sanders to the Nuggets players. “Give me one steal, that’s two, I’m going to the free-throw line, Ima hit one, alright, and I got six on my own now, so I go you.”

Sanders was electric in high school and had monstrous dunks during basketball games that earned him his nickname ‘Prime Time.’ Although he never played in the NBA, his name is so well known that even current NBA players are aware of how electric he was during his playing career.

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