Some coaches in basketball history did not reach the flashy highs of being multiple-time NBA champions but are still kept in high regard. George Raveling was one of them. He changed the careers of many players, including Brian Scalabrine, who might have been lost in the shuffle had it not been for Raveling’s influence at a Michael Jordan basketball camp.
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The Chicago Bulls legend’s coaching camps were a huge draw at the time. Scalabrine considered himself lucky to get into one, and with Raveling being the man who signed MJ to Nike, he had plenty of pull in how things ran. So, when Raveling asked Jordan to trust him, he listened.
Scalabrine, speaking with SiriusXM NBA Radio, recalled warming up and knocking down shots while MJ and Raveling watched from a few feet away. What the Hall of Fame coach said next turned out to be life-changing for him.
Once the kids finished their drills, the counselors were chosen to play with Jordan. Naturally, he could not pick everyone, so he asked Raveling for advice. After naming Darius Miles, Omar Cook, and Mike Taylor, Raveling told him to add Scalabrine.
“Then I heard him pause, and he goes, ‘Mike, I’m not sure you’re gonna like this. But you gotta trust me. You gotta take Scalabrine,” the future Boston Celtics forward recalled. “And then I heard Michael say, ‘The white boy?'”
Jordan appeared to be apprehensive about selecting Scalabrine, despite not knowing his true abilities. But Raveling, on the day, covered for him. He told Jordan, “Yeah, I cover for him. Trust me, you’re gonna love him.”
The fact that, despite 10 lottery picks and college superstars being in attendance, Raveling asked Jordan to pick him was a really special moment for Scalabrine. “That, for me as a kid out of nowhere, playing pickup basketball with the guy that you look up to, it was like a life-changing moment. In my world, Michael Jordan stamped me based on that interaction…”
“George said, ‘take Scalabrine’…for me as a kid out of nowhere playing pickup basketball with [Michael Jordan]. It was a life-changing moment.”@Scalabrine recalls an unforgettable moment with George Raveling & MJ. pic.twitter.com/f2spLpuXEU
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) September 3, 2025
“With three words, ‘you gotta pick Scalabrine’, that whole, changed my entire mindset, and like the trajectory of my life,” he added.
Scalabrine went on to play a whopping 520 games in the NBA over the course of 11 years. While his averages never exceeded that of a man who is 8th in the rotation at best, he hung around as a veteran locker room presence. He could drop 10 and 5 on decent efficiency if given the chance as well.
For anyone growing up in the ’90s or early 2000s, playing with Jordan would have been a dream come true, and Raveling made sure Scalabrine got to live it. Had MJ not taken him on that day, Scalabrine might never have developed the outlook on life that ultimately helped him become an NBA champion in 2008.
For that, he will always be grateful to the legendary coach, who passed away on September 1 at the age of 88 after a battle with cancer.
