At What Point Did Michael Jordan Become the Best Player at UNC?
Michael Jordan's freshman year was phenomenal, something we all knew, but at what point did that happen? Was it the shot against Georgetown in the NCAA tourney? Or was it the first time he stepped on the court on November 28, 1981, and he scored 12 points? Whatever it was, everyone knew Jordan was going to be the next big thing.
During Jordan's time, Roy Williams was Dean Smith's assistant coach and, as of late, has been sharing his most personal stories of the titan. Speaking with Dan Patrick, Williams recalled the moment Michael Jordan became UNC's best player,
James (Worthy) was National Player of the Year And the number one pick in the draft, and Michael deferred to them a great deal as a freshman. Now, as a sophomore, Sam Perkins was still there, and there was no longer deferring at that time. But Michael got better and better and better. We grade the... used to be film, now it's tape, after every game and the Georgetown game was the only game of the year that Michael also won the defensive player of the game award, and nobody ever remembers things like that.
But then his sophomore year, it was over with him, because he was the best and continued through that his junior year. I remember Rod Thorn calling a second day of practice after the Bulls had taken him and telling Coach Smith that... We were having a staff meeting when Rod called, and we were sitting there, and Rod said, this is a joke, we do some one-on-one stuff, and we give him the ball between the top of the key and the center line, and regardless of who we put on, he dunks it. And so I think it didn't take those guys long to figure it out either.
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