Michael Jordan was told by his UNC head coach, Dean Smith, that he needed to join the NBA one year earlier.
Advertisement
Michael Jordan put the entire nation on notice when he decided to take the eventual game-sealing shot in his freshman year during the NCAA Championship game against Georgetown. That 1982 Championship would be one of the most iconic runs for UNC due to that one shot that turned MJ from ‘Mike’ to ‘Michael’.
He would maintain his offensive and defensive productivity in his sophomore and junior years. However, UNC wouldn’t go on to win another Championship in either of those 2 years. While Jordan was playing at Chapel Hill, he was being heavily scouted by NBA scouts and by the time he had finished out his sophomore year, he was a top 3-5 pick on everybody’s mock drafts.
The finishing touch on him being a highly touted recruit was the 1984 Olympics. This is where Michael Jordan cemented himself as a borderline household name, bringing home Gold for USA.
When time came for him to either declare for the NBA Draft or return to UNC for his senior year, he wasn’t given much of a choice by his head coach at the time.
Also read: Stephen Jackson, who smoked Marijuana with Jessica Alba, was Destroyed by 51-Year-Old Michael Jordan
Dean Smith advised Michael Jordan to skip his senior season.
Dean Smith is as intertwined with the University of North Carolina as Michael Jordan is with the Chicago Bulls. Smith coached the Chapel Hill boys for 36 years from 1961 to 1997, winning two NCAA Championships in the process. So, with Jordan being a primary factor in him getting his first title, Smith always had a soft spot for him.
Dean’s affection towards MJ was so high that he actually told him to skip his senior year of college ball and jump straight into the NBA in the 1984 draft. This would be a wise move for him as it would prevent him from suffering any injury prior to making it to the league, reducing the chances of him cashing out.
In an interview with Cigar Aficionado in 2005, Jordan said:
“It was Coach Smith’s call. I relied so much on his knowledge. The NBA was an area where I wasn’t too knowledgeable. My parents weren’t knowledgeable about it either. And it was a great opportunity. Coach Smith felt that it would be the best opportunity for me to make it in professional basketball. Once he researched the situation to find out where I would go in the draft, then I started weighing the pros and cons.”
Jordan would go on to praise him for making such an unselfish call, as UNC would have to wait another 11 years to win a championship game following his departure. Though, in hindsight, this was the absolute best call to make as Jordan went on to earn $550,000 his rookie year and then, well, became the greatest player of all time.
