NBA Legend James Worthy Believes He Was Better Than Michael Jordan in College

Ricardo Klein | Nov 25, 2024

Feb 18, 2022; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Team Worthy head coach James Worthy is introduced during the 2022 NBA Rising Stars Challenge at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

Although some legendary teammates have linked up in the NBA, the same could be said for college basketball. 

Before they started in the NBA, Hall of Famers James Worthy and Michael Jordan were teammates for one season at the University of North Carolina. 

In the 1981-82 campaign, the two were members of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's men's basketball team.

They played for only one season and captured the 1982 title together, thanks to Jordan's go-ahead game-winning shot against Georgetown in the title game. 

Jordan may be the better and more popular player than Worthy, but there was a time when Worthy was the better player compared to Jordan for about three weeks. 

Worthy spoke about how Jordan quickly established himself as the star and admitted that it didn’t take long for the guard to surpass him as the better college basketball player.

“I was with Michael — he was a freshman my junior year,” Worthy said as he reflected on his time playing with Jordan. “We only had four or five months together really. But I — the story tell about Michael, man, I was better than him for about three weeks. And I enjoyed those three weeks, ’cause I saw somethin’ in that boy that he didn’t have it quite yet. He was learnin’ because he didn’t — he ain’t had nobody really. I don’t know what his high school coach but he was a better baseball player. But he would seek out the best in everything: chess, backgammon. And if he lost, he was irately made like he just lost a Game 7. So, we practiced two-and-a-half hours. We runnin’ them sprints, and you tired.

“Now you gotta go to study hall. I’m tryna get off the floor, here he come. Pushin’ me, ‘Where you goin’ young fella? Where you goin’ — you scared?’ So, he always wanted to play a little one-on-one, so we played a little bit. He was just a bad boy.”

Jordan played three seasons for North Carolina and established himslef as a star college player. As for Worthy, his final season was in the 1981-82 season and was named ACC Athlete of the Year.

The Lakers selected Worthy with the No.1 pick in the 1982 NBA Draft and led L.A. to three NBA titles. Jordan is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, with six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls, and was the face of one of the best dynasties in all sports. 

Nonetheless, these two have their own place in the sport and bleed Carolina blue and white. 

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