Jeffrey Michael Jordan never matched his father’s success on the basketball court, but that doesn’t mean he missed out on some pretty cool moments growing up around the GOAT. He had front-row access to some of the biggest NBA stars of his generation, whether it was at his dad’s basketball camp or in their driveway, where players would occasionally show up for a game against Michael.
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Jeffrey played college basketball at the University of Illinois and later at UCF. However, he never truly stood out, averaging just 1.6 points over 107 games. In 2012, he left UCF for personal reasons and never played organized basketball again.
Now, years later, Jeffrey and another son of his father’s former teammate, Horace Grant Jr., got together for a podcast. The two sons of NBA stars talked about some of the best moments from growing up around Jordan and Horace Grant Sr. Jeffrey vividly remembered his favorite memory from growing up.
“My favorite basketball moment? Going to my dad’s camp,” Jordan revealed on Grant Jr’s Podcast. “And more specifically, I think as we got older, and we didn’t outgrow the camp, but you know, we were at the age where we could probably play with the older counselors, all of the college guys, and some of the pros that would show up. Those were some of the best games, best experiences I had.”
As Jeffrey got older, he became a featured name on ESPN’s Top 100 recruits list. After a certain point, MJ felt comfortable letting him play against real NBA guys. It was in those moments that Jeffrey formed some of his most lasting memories.
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Some of the biggest names in basketball attended this camp, according to Jeff. “Once you got to that level of being able to play with the LeBron’s, and the OJ Mayo’s, the Kevin Durant’s, and being able to see them on the practice floor was a unique experience,” Jordan said.
Not only did Jeffrey get to play in the pickup games at the camp, but he also got to play in and watch some games at home. “I remember Derrick Rose, and some of the younger high school guys coming to play against Jamaal Crawford, my dad, and [Charles] Oakley used to play every once in a while. So, it was like a mashup of generations of basketball. It was amazing,” he shared.
It must be pretty surreal to play against big NBA names like that at such a young age. They made Jeffrey a better player, though, as he earned a scholarship to play in the Big Ten. Sometimes, it’s all about getting exposure to what the highest level of the game looks like.
Yet, Jordan then mentioned that he doesn’t think the camps and pickup games would happen anymore, not because other people have changed, but because his dad has.
“It’s hard to recreate those situations because one, my dad is not playing anymore. But two, I think it’s rare even now, when you have so many great players across generations, to get everybody on the same court at the same time.”
Jeffrey seemed to be making a more general point about how difficult it is to get that many stars from different eras to play at the same time. It definitely sounds like it would be a headache to organize. Especially with today’s emphasis on injury prevention, it would be tough to convince current NBA players to put their bodies on the line for pickup games.
Still, it’s a pretty cool story that Jordan’s son shared. Even though he never went pro, he’s one of the very few who can say he played against some of the best players of his generation. Maybe it was not on the big stage, but in pickup games, right in his own driveway.
