Double victory beckons anew for Michael Jordan and the North Carolina Tarheels

| Written by admin | under Tarheels

Michael Jordan and the North Carolina Tarheels, his Airness’ alma mater, may be in for reunion of sorts at the victory podium although may be at separate hard court venues this year. The Tarheels are of course firmly on the saddle among the top seeds of the NCAA Division I, propelled by a 10-game winning streak. Jordan, on the other hand, appears a shoo-in to be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this year.

A double-victory of sorts for the Air Jordan and the Tarheels in 2009 should be a great time to reminisce Jordan’s memorable stint in the University of North Carolina (UNC) ball club which helped shape Michael’s remarkable basketball career. The renowned UNC coach Dean Smith first spotted Jordan in training at the reputable Five-Star Basketball Camp, and recruited him for college basketball. Jordan was then still a senior at Emsley A. Laney High School where he earned a slot in the varsity basketball squad after failing to make the cut in his sophomore year. While playing in his last two seasons with the Laney team, Michael was averaging some 20 points per game, and in his final year, he spearheaded his ball club to 19 victories. He capped his senior year of with triple-double stats of 29.2 points, 10.1 in assists and rebounds averaging 11.6 which gave him one of his earliest accolades in the game, being named as a member of the McDonald’s mythical All-American Team.

Michael Jordan and the North Carolina Tarheels began what proved to be the start of a fruitful union during the 1981-1982 NCAA season. Even as a freshman in the team, UNC coach Smith already employed Michael’s talent on the hard court, only the fourth freshman rookie to be so trusted as a starter by the astute bench tactician in college basketball, another early indication of Jordan’s great future in the world of basketball. For any college ball player, being named as starter at those UNC times was a big deal. Among its star players then were the likes of Sam Perkins and James Worthy who later on shone with their games in the professional league, the NBA.

Nevertheless, it was Michael Jordan and the North Carolina Tarheels which would be etched in the headlines of the NCAA championship in 1982. Pitted in the finals opposite Georgetown University led by another would-be NBA star, Patrick Ewing, Jordan hit a jump shot in the dying seconds of the game to edge out their rivals 63-62 and pocket the NCAA national championship trophy. In his three seasons with UNC, Michael posted a 17.7 average points and 5 rebounds per game, a stellar performance that helped him bag the 1984 Wooden College Player of the Year and Naismith trophies. Prior to his graduation year, Jordan joined the 1984 NBA draft where he was picked third over all by the Chicago Bulls. It was only in 1986 that Michael would return to UNC, no longer as a player but to complete his college degree.