Michael Jordan vs Patrick Ewing, Who are You Taking?

During their High School recruiting visit, Michael Jordan tried Patrick Ewing for the first time, and Ewing didn't back down.

Can you imagine the Heels during the 1981-1984 seasons if they had both Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing along with James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Brad Daugherty, and a host of other talented players during that time-span? Fans would've really been spoiled, and it almost happened. One of those players, Patrick Ewing, decided that UNC wasn't the college home for him and he ultimately went to Georgetown, but what happened on his recruiting visit? Of course, Roy Williams has a story for that too.

To give some background at this time, Patrick Ewing and Michael Jordan, both high schoolers, Ewing from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, and Jordan from Laney High, both just so happened to have the same recruiting weekend. It's also probably the first time those two battled against one another,

"That was one of my great stories," Williams said, "because they were there the same weekend. Two prospects on campus that were pretty good. So I'm taking them over to the football game, and so we took Smith's meeting with them in Carmichael, where we played at that time. And so we'd go down on the court to go walk out the back door to go to the football game. And the basketball's there, and Michael says, we've got a couple of minutes. I said, yeah, so he starts messing with Patrick and backing him down and then faking him, shooting, and he's just laughing at Patrick."

"Patrick's going 25%, and I mean maybe not even that, but they have street clothes on. And so at one point, Patrick had had enough, and he got the ball, and he backed Michael down, one dribble, two dribbles and then turned and about broke the backboard, dunked it on his head. And Michael said, you ready to go, Coach?"

Jordan hated losing even in a random pick-up game... in high school.

And before you answer, this is what Ewing thought on the almost perfect lineup,

"Imagine that team; If I had gone there, it would have been myself, Michael, Worthy, Perkins. That would have been a hell of a front line."

Those two grew up to be in the NBA's top 50 players and met each other over 70 times in their career. One has to wonder, at 16/17 years old did they envision the life they have now. 

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