Michael Jordan: Legends in Sports Read online

  Michael’s perseverance and attitude made an impression on Coach Herring, but he thought his star player had a chance to become even better. In his opinion, Michael needed more experience and would benefit from playing against better competition. With college scouts beginning to ask about the lanky point guard, Coach Herring and an assistant coach at the University of North Carolina recommended that Michael be invited to a summer basketball camp known as the Five Star camp.

  The Five Star camp, held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is one of the most important basketball camps for high school players in the country. Over a three-week period, players receive intense instruction from top coaches and scrimmage against each other over and over again. Scouts from colleges all over the country attend. Only the very best players in the United States are invited to participate. Most players go to the camp thinking they are great, only to return home realizing they have a lot of work left to do.

  Michael was stunned when he received his invitation to Five Star. He wasn’t sure that he belonged there. And when Coach Herring told him that some college scouts thought he could play Division I basketball, the highest level in college hoops, Michael couldn’t believe it. No player from Laney High School had ever played Division I before. Michael was determined not to let this opportunity pass him by.

  At the beginning of the camp, hardly anyone knew who Michael Jordan was. But playing against better competition made Michael a better player. He hated to lose and did whatever it took to win. At the end of his first week, Michael had won five trophies and was the most talked-about player in the camp.

  College recruiters who had come to Five Star to scout other players began paying attention to Michael. They couldn’t believe that some player they had never heard of was outplaying the best high school players in the country. They kept waiting for Michael to fail.

  He didn’t. If anything, Michael played even better the second week, and won four more trophies. By the end of the third week, the colleges were very interested in Michael Jordan. Here, perhaps, was a player worthy of a college scholarship.

  Michael returned home from Five Star excited and full of confidence. Before, he had never even considered the possibility that he could get to college playing basketball. Now that he knew he had a chance to earn a scholarship, Michael Jordan became absolutely possessed by basketball.

  At the beginning of his senior year, Michael practically moved into the high school gym. Before school started, while it was still dark outside, he went to the gym and practiced. After school, long after it was dark, he practiced some more. When basketball season started, Michael practiced with both the varsity and the junior varsity teams. When he returned home late at night, he shot baskets in the backyard or convinced Larry to play one-on-one. Now Michael usually won.

  Then Michael went a little overboard. One day, he cut biology class and went to the gym instead. When he didn’t get caught, he cut class again the next day.

  After about a week of cutting classes, Michael’s absence was finally noticed. In the middle of the school day, the principal called Michael’s home looking for him. James Jordan answered the phone, and when he was told Michael was missing from class, he asked the principal, “Did you check the gym?” Sure enough, Michael was playing basketball. Michael might have been a big high school basketball star, but that didn’t make him an exception to school rules. The principal suspended Michael from school.

  James and Deloris Jordan were not happy with their son. They didn’t care how good Michael was at playing basketball. They knew that unless he was a good student, too, all his athletic talent would go to waste. James Jordan sat Michael down and told him straight out, “The way you’re going, you’ll never get to college.”

  Michael swallowed hard. He realized his father was right. He knew he had to work just as hard in the classroom as he did on the court in order to reach his dreams. A player who was all moves but no brain would never go far. Michael stopped cutting class, and his grades soon improved dramatically.

  Ever since he had returned from basketball camp, college coaches had been trying to convince Michael to attend their schools. Coaches called the Jordan house at all hours to talk to Michael, and every day the mailbox was full of letters telling him how great this or that school was and how much he’d enjoy playing for them. It started to get a little hectic.

  After his suspension, Michael knew he couldn’t afford to have any more distractions during his senior year. He decided to select a college before the basketball season started.

  At first, Michael thought about attending North Carolina State. A few years before, NC State had won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship. Their best player, David Thompson, had been Michael’s favorite player.

  But when Michael went to visit colleges, he was surprised to discover that he preferred the University of North Carolina (UNC), NC States biggest rival. The campus was gorgeous, and the North Carolina coach, Dean Smith, had one of the best reputations in the country. Coach Smith was more than just a basketball coach. He was a good teacher, too. His teams were successful, and he tried to make sure each player received his degree. Some North Carolina players had gone on to become NBA stars, and even those who didn’t had become successes off the basketball court.

  Just before his last high school basketball season started, Michael announced he would attend the University of North Carolina.

  With that decision out of the way, many people wondered if Michael would take it easy his senior year. He didn’t. He still practiced as hard as ever and still found the time to do his schoolwork.

  Michael Jordan was one of the best players in the state. When the Laney team took the court that year, the opposition usually assigned two or three players just to guard Michael.

  It didn’t matter. Michael kept getting better and better. Despite being challenged every time he touched the ball, he averaged almost 28 points per game.

  Michael Jordan had learned his lessons well. High school was over. He was ready for college.

  CHAPTER TWO

  1981–1984

  “Mike’s a Good Player.”

  In the fall of 1981, Michael Jordan officially enrolled at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He was anxious and excited when he arrived on campus. While he had been a big star back in Wilmington, every player on the North Carolina team had been a big high school star. Michael wondered if he was good enough to play.

  The University of North Carolina basketball program was one of the most successful in the nation. The basketball team, nicknamed the Tar Heels, played in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), one of the best college basketball leagues in the country. Almost every season, the Tar Heels challenged for the league championship and earned a place in the NCAA tournament. One year earlier, the Tar Heels had reached the finals of the tournament, losing to the University of Indiana in the championship game.

  North Carolina coach Dean Smith was one of the most respected coaches in the country. His Tar Heel teams were known for their strong fundamental play, defense, and teamwork. There was no place in the Tar Heel lineup for a selfish player.

  The first few days at Chapel Hill, Michael wondered if he had made the right decision. He was overwhelmed.

  College classes were very different from high school — and a lot more difficult! He knew he would have to study hard. Then, when he first met his teammates on the Tar Heels, it seemed as if every player was better than anyone Michael had ever played against. Two Tar Heels, forward James Worthy and center Sam Perkins, were All-Americans. Michael was homesick, and his confidence was shaken.

  Fortunately, Michael’s roommate, fellow Tar Heel Buzz Peterson, helped Michael adjust to college life. The two first met in high school while attending special camps and playing in all-star games.

  It didn’t take long for Buzz and Michael to become close friends, a fact that surprised many people. Buzz was white. Michael was black. Both played guard and knew they would compete f
or the same position in the Tar Heel lineup.

  But Michael and Buzz had so much in common they hardly paid any attention to their differences. They loved basketball and talked about the game late into the night. They kept on each other about their schoolwork, too. They became such good friends that within a few months they even began wearing each other’s clothing!

  One day, just before official practice began, Michael went to the North Carolina gym looking for a pickup basketball game. James Worthy, Sam Perkins, and other veteran members of the team were already on the court playing with Al Wood and Mitch Kupchak, former UNC stars who were now in the NBA.

  Worthy and Perkins saw their freshman teammate-to-be standing on the sidelines and invited him to play.

  When Michael stepped on the court, his knees were shaking. He was so nervous he could hardly think. He kept telling himself to let the game come to him.

  It was only a pickup game, but Michael didn’t want to make any mistakes. He played carefully. He wasn’t hurting his team, but he wasn’t helping much, either.

  Then, with the game tied, the ball landed in Michael’s hand. All of a sudden, he forgot about being careful. Without thinking, he drove to the basket.

  Al Wood glided over in front of Michael, then jumped to block his shot. At the same time, UNC backup center Geoff Crompton, seven feet tall, came at Michael from the side.

  Michael jumped, holding the ball in one hand.

  Wood reached up to block his shot, but Michael somehow slid past him in the air. Crompton stretched out his arms, but even he couldn’t reach Michael.

  Crash! Michael slammed the ball through the hoop. The game was over. Michael’s team won.

  The other players stopped in their tracks and stared at Michael for a second before they started whooping and hollering, slapping him on the back, and putting their arms around his shoulders. A big grin broke out on Michael’s face. He knew he belonged.

  When official practice began, Michael learned there was only one open spot in the starting lineup, at guard. Few expected a freshman, even Michael Jordan, to start for Coach Smith. Most players took at least a year to learn Smith’s system, and Smith preferred to play experienced ballplayers. Only three freshmen had ever started a game for Coach Smith.

  But Michael Jordan had an advantage. The North Carolina offense was identical to the one used by Laney High. In the first few weeks of practice, Michael played well. Smith noticed that no one on the team could guard Michael one-on-one.

  Then Michael twisted an ankle and missed two weeks of practice. He wasn’t able to play again until just a few days before Carolina’s first game of the season, against Kansas. Although his ankle was fully healed, Michael didn’t expect to play very much.

  Before the game, the UNC players slowly filtered into the locker room. The veterans went straight to their lockers and started getting dressed, joking with one another and filling the room with laughter.

  Michael was nervous. Before he went to his locker, he walked nonchalantly, head down, over to a blackboard in the locker room. Coach Smith had told the players the starting lineup would appear on the blackboard.

  Michael took a deep breath and quickly glanced up at the board.

  He saw his name! He had made the starting lineup!

  When Michael ran out on the court for warm-up, he hardly felt his feet touch the court. More than 11,000 fans packed the stands, and the game was being broadcast all over the East Coast. Michael tried to stay calm.

  But when the game started, Michael still felt butterflies in his stomach. The first time he touched the ball, he tossed up a jump shot.

  The shot missed, but as the ball caromed off the basket, Michael’s butterflies disappeared. He stopped being nervous and began playing basketball. The next time he got the ball, he drove to the baseline, leaped above two defenders, and sank a short jumper. He was on his way.

  North Carolina won, 74–67. Everyone on the team had played well, and Michael had scored 12 points.

  After the game, a reporter asked Michael’s teammate, guard Jimmy Black, for his opinion of the young freshman. Said Black, “Mike’s a good player.”

  Good soon became great. Two weeks later, in a game against ninth-ranked Tulsa, Michael was nearly unstoppable. In only 22 minutes of play, he hit 11 of 15 shots for 22 points. Michael also stole the ball four times and blocked a shot. UNC beat Tulsa, 78–70.

  Everyone in college basketball was beginning to take notice of Michael Jordan. Even Michael was finally beginning to realize how good he was. He told one reporter, “When I first got here, I thought everybody was a superstar. Now I realize I’m as good as everybody else.”

  With Michael, James Worthy, and Sam Perkins leading the way, the Tar Heels tore through the remainder of the season, finishing with a record of 24–2. They won the ACC championship and the conference tournament. Entering the NCAA tournament, the Tar Heels were ranked number one in the nation.

  But being number one was no guarantee of success. A lot of people expected North Carolina to fail. While Coach Smith had taken the Tar Heels to the championship games of the tournament three times before, North Carolina had lost each time. Some people wondered if a team coached by Smith could win the championship.

  In their first tournament game, against lightly regarded James Madison University, the Tar Heels struggled and barely eked out a 52–50 victory. That game was representative of the entire tournament, as North Carolina narrowly defeated Alabama, Villanova, and Houston to make the finals.

  Their opponents in the championship game were the Hoyas of Georgetown University. Georgetown had a great team and was particularly strong on defense. The freshman center, seven-foot-tall Patrick Ewing, was considered by many to be the best freshman player in the nation, even better than Michael Jordan.

  The game was played before 61,612 fans in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. Millions more watched the game on television.

  The first four times North Carolina brought the ball down the court and shot, Patrick Ewing jumped up and swatted the ball away from the basket. He was called for goaltending each time, but he was sending North Carolina a message: Nothing was going to come easy.

  The two teams battled back and forth the entire game. Neither was able to open up a big lead. Each team challenged every shot. Every loose ball ended with a half-dozen players on the court scrambling to pick it up.

  Then, with less than a minute to play, Georgetown guard Eric “Sleepy” Floyd hit a running jump shot to give the Hoyas a 62–61 lead. Coach Smith called a time-out.

  In the Georgetown huddle, Hoya coach John Thompson told his players to watch for James Worthy and Sam Perkins. Worthy had already scored 28 points, and Thompson thought Worthy would probably take the last shot.

  But Coach Smith of North Carolina was thinking one step ahead of his counterpart. He expected Georgetown to blanket both Worthy and Perkins. Smith decided that Michael Jordan would take the last shot.

  The move made sense but was also a little risky. While Michael had a hot hand and had scored two important baskets in the last few minutes, he was also a freshman. Smith hoped that Michael could take the pressure. He called the play, and as the Tar Heel huddle broke up, Smith leaned over to Michael, cupped his hand over his ear, and said, “Make it, Michael.” Michael Jordan gave his coach a quick nod.

  Jimmy Black inbounded the ball to Jordan at mid-court, and the two guards passed the ball back and forth as they sized up the Georgetown defense. When a Hoya player challenged Black for the ball, he set the play in motion, snapping the ball to forward Matt Doherty at the top of the key.

  As the Georgetown defense started to collapse toward the basket, Doherty returned the ball to Black on the right side. Then, when the Georgetown defense swung toward him, Black took one dribble, feinted a pass inside, then tossed the ball crosscourt to Michael on the left side.

  Georgetown was caught off guard. Underneath the basket, James Worthy and Sam Perkins were well covered. Michael was open.

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sp; The entire Georgetown team stopped and surged in his direction. Michael Jordan, seventeen feet from the basket, calmly jumped into the air.

  At the top of his leap, he hung in the air, then flicked the ball toward the basket with his right hand. The shot arched up high and long. Time seemed to stop as the ball reached its peak and started to curve back down.

  The ball snapped through the basket.

  Two points! The Tar Heels took the lead, 63–62!

  A few seconds later, Georgetown threw the ball away and North Carolina ran out the clock. The Tar Heels were NCAA champions!

  Michael Jordan was a hero. Back in North Carolina, Tar Heel fans started referring to the play as simply “the Shot.” Everyone knew that meant Michael’s game-ending basket. A photograph of Michael Jordan taking the Shot was placed on the cover of the local telephone directory. The game-winning basket made Michael Jordan one of the best-known college basketball players in the country.

  How did he celebrate? Only two days after winning the national championship, he was back in the gym, playing in pickup games, getting ready for his sophomore season.

  At the end of the school year, James Worthy decided to leave college early and enter the NBA draft. Michael Jordan knew that in his sophomore year the Tar Heels would depend on him to make up for the loss of Worthy.

  Michael spent hours in the gym every day. Although he was only playing in pickup games, the competition included many of his Tar Heel teammates and alumni from recent years. Michael’s team usually won, and he would play for hours. He didn’t leave the court until he was too exhausted to play anymore.

  All the hard work paid off. Entering his sophomore season, Michael looked strong and powerful. He now stood six foot six. Everyone expected him to be the best player in college basketball.

  But when the season began, the Tar Heels missed James Worthy. Although Michael was all over the court, stealing the ball, rebounding, and scoring almost at will, North Carolina didn’t quite have the firepower of the year before. While they still managed to win the ACC championship, they lost to Georgia in the regionals of the NCAA tournament, 82–77. Michael scored 28 points in the losing effort, and the Tar Heels finished the 1982–83 season with a record of 28–8.