Episode 4: The Ol’ College Try
Michael Jordan is an asshole in college! We talk about Dean Smith’s UNC! We talk about the glorious shot to win the NCAA tournament against Georgetown MJ’s freshman year! We talk about the semi-glorious rest of his college career! And we talk about his father’s run-ins with the law during this time.
Sources:
Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby
“Fanfare for an Uncommon Man: Dean Smith is SI’s Sportsman of the Year” Sports Illustrated
“Worthy Arrested in Vice Sting” Chicago Tribune
“Dean Smith willed $200 to each of his former lettermen” Larry Brown Sports
Money Players: Days and Nights Inside the New NBA by Armen Keteyian
Transcript:
Intro
Andrea: This podcast contains coarse language literally in the fucking title and may not be suitable for all listeners....Sorry Mom.
Guest: Man, Fuck Michael Jordan.
Trevor: Welcome MJ haters and haters-to-be! This is the Fuck Michael Jordan Podcast, the world’s only podcast dedicated to the fact that Michael Jordan is an asshole. Come on and slam…
Andrea: ...and welcome to the jam.
Trevor: I’m Trevor Kelley
Andrea: I’m Andrea Kelley.
Trevor: And we’re not saying that Michael Jordan is responsible for the outbreak of Murder Hornets.
Andrea: But we sure aren’t saying he isn’t. All right! Let’s start another episode!
Trevor: Episode 4!
Andrea: With this weird energy we always start with.
Trevor: I’m just glad we didn’t do the air horn thing that we always do. *makes air horn noises*
Andrea: Now you’ve done it! It’s too late.
Trevor: I know; I had to.
Andrea: And we can’t cut that. I want everyone to witness your shame.
Trevor: Yes, ma’am.
Andrea: Okay, all right, let’s get this out. Shake it out. We’re ready.
Trevor: Stretched.
Andrea: Talking like normal people again. Today we’re going to be talking about Michael Jordan’s college days. How do you feel about that, Trevor?
Trevor: I mean, I’m not a big UNC fan or college basketball fan or Michael Jordan fan.
Andrea: So we’re going to learn something today! All right, you got your drink?
Trevor: Yep, I got it right here.
Andrea: I’ve got my drink. We’re ready to go.
Trevor: Never talk about him sober.
Andrea: We do not talk about Michael Jordan sober. Important rule. So previous couple episodes have focused on Michael Jordan’s youth, but he is legally an adult from here on out, and as such, all of his crimes are actionable to the fullest extent of the law. We’ll be talking about the things Michael Jordan did while wrapped up in baby blue as a Carolina Tar Heel. There’s tar on them thar heels.
Trevor: Did you write that part?
Andrea: Yeah, I don’t know. It felt clever at the time and now it’s in my script and I read it aloud.
Trevor: I love it.
Andrea: Thank you.
Trevor: It’s great.
Andrea: I don’t know, most college basketball mascots are ridiculous, so Tar Heels is fine. We’re going to be talking about about MJ playing against some Hoyas, some Hoosiers, some Terrapins...all the bullshit ones.
Trevor: Yeah, I don’t know what any of those animals are.
Andrea: No, none of them are even real. So first, real quick, I have a fun fact that doesn’t really fit into this episode’s narrative, but I wanted to mention it:. Remember last episode, Roy Williams, the graduate assistant who may or may not have gone behind Dean Smith’s back to get Michael Jordan into the Five Star camp?
Trevor: Yeah, yeah.
Andrea: He’s the head coach at North Carolina these days.
Trevor: Oh.
Andrea: I did not realize that when we did that, so any listeners that might have heard that and were like “wait, was that The Roy Williams?” Yeah, yep, it was, and yes, you know more than I do about college basketball, congrats. I fill out my March Madness brackets based on what colors I like while shit-faced, like a normal person.
Trevor: RIght, like a good American.
Andrea: I’m a fucking American here. Yeah, I kind of like discovered it by accident looking at North Carolina’s records. I was like, wait, is that the guy that I remember? So we’re all learning things and that’s kind of part of the fun of this podcast in general.
Trevor: Yeah, that’s a fun fact.
Andrea: Like I mean, we’ve talked about this before, but going into this podcast, we kind of knew some things and I’ve done a lot of research, but there’s still definitely...you know, I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on anything.
Trevor: Right.
Andrea: We’re learning together and that’s the fun and the joy…
Trevor: That’s what life is all about! Woo!
Andrea: Yay! So yeah, that Roy Williams we would like...he’s been head coach for 17 years and he’s led that team to three national championships.
Trevor: Well he’s got a nose for talent.
Andrea: Yeah, I mean, the only thing I knew about him was picking out Michael Jordan and I was already impressed with the guy. So yeah, I think that’s pretty cool, though, that he kind of rose up through that. He coached a few other places and stuff and the came back to UNC.
Trevor: Nice.
Andrea: Cool. Anyway, on with the tale! Today, we’re going to talk about an even more legendary UNC coach: A man who coached there for 36 years and spent three of these trying to teach Michael Jordan how to be a team player.
Trevor: Even more legendary that Ray Miller?
Andrea: Roy Williams? Close.
Trevor: Randal Tarley?
Andrea: That’s the one! All right, let’s discuss a certain Mr. Dean Smith, shall we?
Dean Smith
Andrea: Dean Smith was quite revered amongst his players. He created a family-like atmosphere and stayed in touch with players long after they left school and took a keen interest in their careers and personal lives. There are like a bunch of stories of former players being amazed when Dean Smith remembered the names of their family members and friends. His players had a 96% graduation rate, which was a huge part of why MJ’s mother was really happy her son chose to play at UNC.
Trevor: Yeah.
Andrea: Though (spoiler alert), he’s not going to graduate. But typically Division I basketball players have like a 75% graduation rate.
Trevor: Okay. I did not know that.
Andrea: Yeah, it’s a fun fact. Dean Smith recruited the first black scholarship player to the team in 1967 when it was still a controversial move.
Trevor: Yeah, the 60s.
Andrea: Yeah, and especially in North Carolina.
Andrea: He coached many greats over the years: Bob McAdoo, James Worthy, Rasheed Wallace, Kenny “The Jet” Smith, Vince Carter, and others.
Trevor: I only knew the last three names. But I knew those names.
Andrea: You knew those names. We’re going to learn…well, obviously we all know Kenny “The Jet” Smith.
Trevor: Everybody knows and loves Kenny “The Jet” Smith.
Andrea: Because he’s an NBA announcer that’s on NBA 2K and that’s mostly what I know. Obviously he’s a big deal.
Trevor: He does that show with Chuck! And Shaq! And Ernie!
Andrea: Yeah, we love that shit.
Trevor: Like the best part of professional basketball is their commentary on it. I swear to god, Charles Barkley and shit. So good.
Andrea: But Dean Smith’s biggest player success, of course, was Michael Jordan. If you google image search “Dean Smith” literally half the first page is pictures of him with MJ. Like he is his legacy, essentially, in most people’s minds. Many former players, including Michael Jordan, saw Dean Smith as a second father (not just the ones whose fathers had been murdered). When former UNC point guard James Worthy of the Lakers got arrested for prostitution solicitation. Worthy said “Coach Smith was the second person to call me and he said ‘We’re all human. I know you’re a great man. Just deal with it as a man.’” James Worthy did. He was arrested in the afternoon before a game in Houston and after getting bailed out, showed up at the arena just as the 2nd quarter was starting, and dropped 24 pts on the Rockets. Like men do.
Trevor: Hell yeah, that’s what men do. We hire a hooker, we fuck her, we go to jail, we come back, we drop 24 points.
Andrea: On the Rockets.
Trevor: That’s men. On the Rockets. Hell yeah.
Andrea: So, I mean, that story doesn’t really have a lot to do with anything, but I just really like it.
Trevor: That story has a lot to do with humanity.
Andrea: Humanity. But yeah, Dean Smith was seen as a father by a lot of these guys. When Dean Smith died in 2015, it was in his will to give each of his former players $200 with a note saying “Enjoy a dinner out compliments of Coach Dean Smith,” which I think is pretty rad.
Trevor: That is really cool.
Andrea: Remind me to adjust my will so all my former coworkers get a voucher for a free Del Taco. I don’t have Dean Smith money, but…
Trevor: I’m dead now, here’s some free Del Taco.
Andrea: Enjoy a Del Taco. Presumably MJ actually used his $200 to raise the stakes in a blackjack game.
Trevor: Yeah, probably lost it playing cards, for sure.
Andrea: And James Worthy used it on an escort.
Trevor: Yeah, a very cheap…well I guess it was the 80s.
Andrea: No, it was 2015 when Dean Smith died, so let’s say to tip an escort. Cause like, if she’s charging you $200, she’s either not attractive of she’s being sex trafficked. So let’s pay your sex workers what they’re worth, everybody. That’s an official stance.
Trevor: The official “Fuck Michael Jordan” stance is “pay your sex workers what they’re worth.
Andrea: All right. Dean Smith was an obsessive, detail-oriented person. Sportscaster Billy Packer remembers announcing a game between NC State and Carolina when Dean Smith came up to him and said “I don’t appreciate your tie.” Packer says quote “I realized I was wearing a red tie. I thought ‘that guy never stops. Here the teams are getting ready to go out and play...how the hell could he be worried about what tie I had on?’” Of course, the love for Coach Smith only extended as far as love for North Carolina basketball goes. He was naturally hated especially by fans of other ACC teams. Terry Holland, the coach at Virginia, was rumored to have a bitch dog he named Dean after Coach Smith.
Trevor: And also referred to as a “bitch dog”, apparently. Who does that? It’s just, usually you just have “a dog”.
Andrea: I feel like he doesn’t like this dog. I worry about that dog’s life.
Trevor: This is my bitch dog, Dean Smith.
Andrea: I mean that dog’s probably dead now.
Trevor: That’s true. Most dog’s are.
Andrea: Most dogs are dead.
Trevor: As we’ve covered.
Andrea: As we’ve discussed before. Holland was not a fan, obviously, but perhaps with good reason; he recalls Smith once “thought one of my players was roughing up Phil Ford, and at halftime when the teams came off the court he confronted Marc -- physically touched him and said things. That's one area where I think Dean always had a problem...That's extremely dangerous and way over the line.”
Trevor: Like “physically touched him”...that sounds like...
Andrea: He doesn’t clarify where he touched him and what things he said, so we will only imagine the worst.
Trevor: So he walked up, grabbed him by the penis and was like “I don’t like that. Don’t do that.” Gave a shake and let him go.
Andrea: The cynic in me is also not a huge fan of what I would call false modesty and self-righteousness of the squeaky clean Dean Smith image. He campaigned against college players being interviewed or photographed for PlayBoy. He refused to shoot a scene wearing a “We’re #1” finger for an ESPN promo because it seemed too, like, ostentatious.
Trevor: He’s like “but what if we’re number four?”
Andrea: Right. He didn’t allow players to wear beards unless they had a doctor’s note because he saw it as unprofessional. Which especially bugs me just because of bad memories from going to BYU.
Trevor: Yeah. What kind of doctor’s note would that...
Andrea: Well like if you have like a skin condition or something...
Trevor: Oh, okay, I guess if shaving like irritates your face or something. I was thinking “he’s got a blood condition and he has to have a beard.”
Andrea: I want it to be a psychiatrist, like they’ve got an anxiety condition and the beard soothes them.
Trevor: Yeah, he pets his own beard to sooth himself.
Andrea: It’s a comfort beard.
Trevor: It’s just a comfort beard, I need it so I can play.
Andrea: Yeah, BYU still doesn’t allow facial hair cause Ernest B. Wilkinson was scared of hippies in the 60s.
Trevor: Yeah, and probably gay.
Andrea: Wait, is that for real?
Trevor: Uh, well we can talk about that later.
Andrea: Okay, that is a tangent I would like to go on, but we will not.
Trevor: A little off-topic.
Andrea: Dean Smith never coached a losing season in his 36 years with North Carolina, which is really impressive. One of them was a tied season, but never a losing. And his teams were more often than not a force to be reckoned with in the NCAA tournament. Though when Michael Jordan joined the team as a freshman in 1981, UNC had yet to win a national championship. That would of course soon change.
Trevor: Of course. Why is he so good at everything...that’s basketball.
Andrea: Mostly just basketball. Why so good at everything...
Trevor: ...that is just this one thing.
System Player
Andrea: What would also change was the moniker of young Jordan. Art Chansky, a local sports reporter at the time tells the tale: “I remember that people thought he was really cocky or that he just talked a lot and he wanted to have the nickname Magic. People in Wilmington had started calling him Magic. Dean said to him, ‘Why do you want to become Magic? Somebody else already has that name.’ If you look in the 1982 Carolina brochure, he was Mike Jordan. What would you like to be called?’ ‘They call me Michael.’ ‘Well, we’ll have to call you Michael Jordan from now on.’ That was the smartest move they ever made because he became just Michael. Calling him Magic was bullshit. Dean was smart about that.”
Trevor: It’s true. It’d be like someone being like…”What do you want your nickname to be?” “Michael Jordan.” There was already Magic Johnson, you know? And they only called him Magic.
Andrea: But also, when I join the NBA someday, I want you to call me Michael.
Trevor: Okay, bedroom’s going to get weird, but I’ll get over it.
Andrea: So yeah, thank god for Dean Smith, for stopping another guy from trying to force a “cool” nickname on himself. Also, would like to take this opportunity to ask you to start referring to Trevor as...what podcasting nickname do you want to go by?
Trevor: Michael Jordan.
Andrea: Michael Jordan. And I will go by The Swipe.
Trevor: Oh.
Andrea: Somehow the first name that came to mind.
Trevor: Wait no, because this is “Fuck Michael Jordan”, I don’t want to be Michael, somebody already has that name.
Andrea: I’m going by “Isiah Thomas”.
Trevor: The biggest asshole of that era.
Andrea: I’ll be the third Isiah Thomas in the NBA.
Trevor: If I was going to get a basketball nickname, I think I’d be The Skid.
Andrea: The Skid. I like it. When MJ joined the Tar Heels, the team had been the runner up in the NCAA tournament the year before, and while they weren’t retaining all their key players, they still had some, and more importantly, they had a winning system. While many college coaches at the time were working off a hodge-podge collection of plays and intuition, Dean Smith is definitely a system-type coach. It was one of the best educations in the fundamentals of basketball a college player could get. He focused on players sharing shots and setting picks for one another. It was a system based on teamwork and that system in 1982 needed a high-scoring off-guard. Enter ‘They call me Michael’. Ralph Sampson, the NBA Hall of Famer you may recall from Trevor and I embarrassing ourselves last episode over not knowing, reflected on Jordan’s college career years later, saying MJ was quote “very fortunate to be in that situation.” Jordan had walked onto a championship-ready team. There might be a little bitterness involved, as Sampson was in the less fortunate situation of being on an ACC team during the years when Michael Jordan’s Tar Heels were a perpetual roadblock against their chances of a conference championship.
Trevor: You can kind of hear the salt.
Andrea: He just walked into a championship.
Trevor: Pretty luck that he walked onto the Chicago Bulls. Oh, I guess so.
Andrea: But for now, MJ was just a freshman and Smith’s teams very much valued seniority. Freshman were considered low-status bitches, required to chase down loose balls in practice, carry team bags, and other menial tasks. It was not common for freshmen to be starters, and in 1981, was certainly not a given that Jordan would be the go-to points guy. But Jordan always played best when he thought he had something to prove, and he trash-talked even better. James Worthy, who was a junior at the time, says quote, “I saw it then, he had raw talent. And that’s all he was, he came in trying to target who he’s going to dismantle.” He already had the confidence of someone much older. What bothered Worthy the most was how this freshmen was always telling older players how he was going to dunk on them, which seems to be the most common refrain of young Michael’s trash-talk repertoire; I’ve read it like a million times now “I’m going to dunk on you.”
Trevor: “I’m going dunk on…” I can see this like montage of like: like it’s his mom, “I’m going to dunk on you”, it’s a guy at the grocery store, “I”m going to dunk on you.”
Andrea: Some of the older players were definitely worried this Michael kid was going to upset team chemistry, but if anyone was going to keep him in his place, it was Dean Smith. And to his credit, MJ respected the hell out of his coach and soaked up everything the coaching staff taught him about basketball and about life. As time went on and the season was about to begin, it was becoming clear to all in the program that MJ’s talent and teachability made him the front-runner to be a starter. However, when Sports Illustrated wanted North Carolina’s starting five to be on the cover of one issue prior to basketball season, Dean Smith refused to let Jordan, someone who had yet to play a minute in a game, be part of it. If you can imagine, Jordan took deep offense to this.
Trevor: What? I...what?
Andrea: I know! You’d think he’d just take it on the nose like he always does.
Trevor: Right. You’d think he’d just take it in stride, let water drip off his back.
Andrea: No. It’s literally one picture for Sports Illustrated, and he mentions it in his hall of fame speech decades later. That this “burned him up” that he wasn’t allowed to be...
Trevor: The farther we go, the more I realize that the secret to success is never ever letting anything go.
Andrea: Also the secret to a great marriage, Trev, so I think...
Trevor: By the way, seven years ago, you said to me…
Andrea: Excellent. MJ did end up starting the first game that season, and every game afterward that he played at UNC, and would prove his worth, scoring in double digits for his first six games. The Tar Heels would go 32-2 that season, and Jordan would play his role in the system well, averaging 13.5 points/game.
Trevor: That’s actually fucking nuts, as far as team records go. 32-2, they lost two games all season. That’s really good.
Andrea: Jordan that season was their third best scorer; he was behind James Worthy and Sam Perkins. But he was a star on the rise! He was good, but his ego still out-played his body. Dean Smith would later say, “Many people don’t remember that even then Michael was inconsistent and had an up-and-down freshman year.” All anyone remembers is the moment at the end of the season, in the NCAA tournament final game, when freshman Michael Jordan would suddenly become the hero darling of the college basketball scene.
Trevor: Hero darling? You’re either the hero or you’re the darling; you don’t get to be both.
Andrea: If Michael Jordan heard you say that, he would take deep offense.
Trevor: Listen to me, Michael, you’re not the hero darling, okay?
Andrea: Pick one or the other.
Trevor: You’re a hero, or you’re a fucking darling, okay? You pick.
Andrea: Which do you think he would pick?
Trevor: He’d pick darling. He wouldn’t want to; he wouldn’t want to admit it. He’d pick hero, but inside he’d wish he’d picked darling. That’s what it would be.
Andrea: I’d pick darling for sure.
Trevor: I think darling would be awesome.
Andrea: I feel like darlings are better dressed.
Trevor: Yeah, that’s true. And they’re better to hang out with. Have you ever hung out with a darling?
Andrea: A lot better than a hero, I’ll tell you that.
Glory Moment
Andrea: In most tellings of the Michael Jordan tale, the entirety of his college career is his shot to win the 1982 National Championship against Georgetown. Like “Michael Jordan went to UNC where he single-handedly won Dean Smith his first championship title and okay, on to the NBA!” Of course, like most of these things, it was a lot more of a nuanced situation than that. They won’t admit it now, but most Carolina fans at the time would not have picked to have the ball in the hands of the inconsistent freshman Jordan at the end of a championship game, despite the flashes of brilliance and athleticism MJ had shown during the regular season and during the lead-up to the tournament games. People who played against him, however, often recognized that MJ had a singular intensity that was special. When UNC played Villanova in the regional semifinals, Ed Pinckney, a Nova forward who would go on to have a mediocre NBA career, remembered a play when MJ matched up against John Pinone, another Nova forward who would have an even less illustrious NBA career, quote “Our coach always taught us if you’re in a bad way, wrap a guy up and don’t let him get an easy layup. I knew John was going to foul him. So [Michael] jumps, and John whose nickname was ‘The Bear’ -- he was a pretty strong guy -- grabs him in midair, Jordan like spins out his arms...it was an impossible play to make but he did it anyway...and we all shook our heads like ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ [Michael] literally had to lift up a 240-pound guy and dunk. To us Pinone was like the strongest guy ever...He shouldn’t have been able to maintain his balance and get free to complete a shot. It was like a freakish, freakish play.” So it’s like you know the old basketball strategy, like, okay, he’s going to get an easy lay-up, you better just foul him because you’re odds are better, but no, it’s like we’re going to blatantly foul him, he’s still going to make the dunk and get the and-one.
Trevor: I know I’m focusing on the wrong thing here, but that’s kind of what I do, but do you think “The Bear”, do you think they had a guy named like Ed “The Twink” Harrison, or something?
Andrea: I imagine that he was called “The Bear” because of his sexual preferences, and not because he was a 240 pound guy.
Trevor: I mean, he was a bear, he would hold guys down.
Andrea: North Carolina ended up in the finals for the second year in the row, but hoped to come home with a much different result than 1981’s loss to Isiah Thomas’ Indiana Hoosiers. The game was played in the New Orleans Superdome in front of over 60,000 spectators, a record number for college basketball at the time.
Trevor: Yeah, that’s insane attendance for a college game. That’s insane attendance for an NBA game.
Andrea: Yeah, it was the national championship, but still crazy. And another 17 million were watching the game on TV. If there was a time to make a big play that would make you instantly famous, this was it, baby. The game was against Patrick Ewing’s Georgetown, and it was very much a back-and-forth game. With less than a minute left, The Georgetown Hoyas had the lead 62-61. Smith called a time-out, even though as he recalls it quote, “Usually I don’t like to take a time-out there. We should know what to do. But I expected Georgetown to come back to the zone and jam it in. I said, ‘Doherty, take a look for James or Sam, and Jimmy, the cross-court pass will be there to Michael.’ As it turned out, Michael’s whole side of the court was wide open because they were chasing James. If Michael had missed, Sam would've been the hero because he’d have had the rebound.” So the shot that would define Michael Jordan’s college career was a victory for system basketball, not really the MJ take-over of the game that I think a lot of us imagine.
Trevor: That is true of a lot of great players, though. I mean, if you look at the recent Warriors team, they have great players, Steph Curry is undeniably really fucking good, but the best thing about them is their system.
Andrea: They always have an open guy somewhere, and they can all fucking shoot.
Trevor: Always. It’s really annoying. You’ve gotta have the personnel for system basketball, but like, the system itself, it’s the tactics, man! It works.
Andrea: They had options spread around, and the other team expected the ball to go to the bigger Tar Heel star at the time, James Worthy.
Trevor: Now Michael would tell you that it’s the players that win the games, but it’s the organization that makes the system, that’s all I’m saying.
Andrea: There’s a balance there. Obviously you can’t have, like if you have garbage players in a good system, you’re fucked. Or if you have good players in a bad system, you’re fucked.
Trevor: Garbage system, you’ll still do nothing.
Andrea: So it takes it all.
Trevor: Yeah, not going to point out any NBA teams, but...
Andrea: Billy Packer who had called the game for CBS has some doubt that the play even worked as intended, saying “I always felt a shot like that couldn’t have been designed by Dean Smith...you’ve got Worthy and Perkins and you’ve got them inside. What are we talking about? We’re going to rotate the ball to Michael? Now everybody these days says ‘Sure you would.’ But back then you wouldn’t. You would get the ball to Worthy first, Perkins second, and then maybe a penetration and then kick it over there...when I was broadcasting that game, that wasn’t an option I had in mind for one, two, or three,” but he goes on, “Michael wanted the shot, and that you saw. There was no hesitation, no extra faking. It was, ‘Hey, give me the ball and I”m going to put this in the basket.’” Jordan in 2002 would discuss the shot saying, “It was predestined. It was destiny. Ever since I made that shot, everything has just fallen into place for me. If that shot hadn’t gone in, I don’t think I would be where I am today.” I’m personally not a big believer in destiny, but I understand why you would be if you’re Michael Jordan.
Trevor: That’s the thing, like a lot of professional athletes do believe in destiny, and how can you not, if you make these amazing plays really consistently. It’s like “oh yeah, well God wanted me to win.”
Andrea: God wanted me to happen to be in the genetic 1%.
Trevor: Well I mean, if there is a god, that’s correct.
Andrea: That’s true. Fair, fair. I also like how he says “everything fell into place for me” and this is in 2002 after his father was murdered.
Trevor: Yeah, he finally got rid of the man who wished he was Larry.
Andrea: Everything fell into place. Michael Jordan was a star around campus from that moment on. Arguably his freshman year of college was the last time he would have anything like anonymity. We’ll talk about his college life a little more, the eh, semi-glorious rest of MJ’s college days, and talk about a scandal involving MJ’s father James Jordan on the other side of a word from our sponsors.
[commercial break]
College Life
Guest: Fuck Michael Jordan!
Andrea: We are back from a word from our sponsors.
Trevor: Whoo! They sponsor us!
Andrea: College life would in some ways still be very typical for Jordan. He lived on campus for three years in a dorm tower where many other athletes lived. Shooting the shit, dating girls, all that jazz. But most remembered MJ as a pretty serious kid. When Sports Illustrated printed pictures of Jordan dancing in his dorm room with headphones and an umbrella, one of his classmates recalls being mad at how obviously staged it was….not because of the weird use of an umbrella indoors, but because MJ was dancing.
Trevor: That mother-fucker was dancing, this shit’s staged!
Andrea: Doing that Singing in the Rain shit. Dancing with an umbrella.
Trevor: Do you know him? He’s not like that!
Andrea: He doesn’t dance! He roomed with a fellow North Carolina native who he had met at basketball camp in high school, Buzz Peterson. Michael Jordan recalls Buzz Peterson in his Hall of Fame speech, quote, “And then there’s Buzz Peterson, my roommate. Now when I first met Buzz – all I heard about was this kid from Ashville, North Carolina who’s player of the year. I’m thinking, ‘well he ain’t never played against me yet, so how did he become Player of the Year?’ Is that some type of media exposure?...so Buzz Peterson became a dot on my board. And when I got the chance to meet Buzz Peterson on the basketball court or in person – Buzz was a great person, it wasn’t a fault of his. It was just that my competitive nature – I didn’t think that he could beat me, or he was better than me as a basketball player. And he became my roommate. And from that point on, he became a focal point – not knowingly; he didn’t know it – but he did.”
Trevor: What a wandering statement. And I know again, I’m focusing on the wrong thing here, but when did people stop naming their sons Buzz?
Andrea: That’s a good question, actually. It’s a great name.
Trevor: I feel like I haven’t heard of a Buzz that wasn’t born pre-1980 ever.
Andrea: Is Buzz short for something?
Trevor: Yeah, Buzzard. It’s either Buzzard or William. But to the story, though, it’s just silly. I like how Michael is like “ Oh, it wasn't his fault.”
Andrea: He was a great friend. We were roommates. I just hated him because somebody thought he was better at basketball than me.
Trevor: Oh, it wasn’t his fault, I just wanted to kick his ass.
Andrea: Most people seem to recall Buzz being MJ’s best friend in college, but apparently this whole time he was just there to motivate Michael.
Trevor: Right, like all of us are.
Andrea: Yeah, that’s right. That’s why we’re doing this podcast!
Trevor: Michael couldn’t motivate himself; he had to be motivated by other people
Andrea: It’s like the story of Leroy Smith, his friend in high school, all over again. His quote “friend.”
Trevor: His “friend” in high school.
Andrea: Actually, he calls out Leroy Smith by name in his hall of fame speech, as well.
Trevor: Does he?
Andrea: He’s like such a dick.
Trevor: He’s all “He’s not better than me at basketball either.”
Andrea: Here’s my Hall of Fame speech: Let me name everybody who’s worse than me at basketball. David Mann, a kid who lived in the same dorm as MJ during his college years, gives some insight into what an asshole college-aged Jordan was. David Mann was studying media with the hope of working in film and recalls, “Michael thought that was nuts...he would come up to me and say ‘you know you ought to go speak to Dean Smith’s wife.’ Dean Smith’s wife was a psychiatrist and every time I would see Mchael, he would say ‘Have you seen Dean Smith’s wife yet? Have you talked to her?’ He thought it was funny that somebody like me would want to move out to Los Angeles and have any sort of chance working in the movie business.” Like Jesus Christ, I think the guy who really could use a psychiatrist is the one so insecure that he has to shit on everyone else’s dreams.
Trevor: Maybe he just was really into Dean Smith’s wife.
Andrea: Have you seen Dean Smith’s wife? Because you sure should.
Trevor: Have you seen here? Because she’s hot.
Andrea: Let’s look up real quick what Dean Smith’s wife looks like.
Trevor: Oh no. Okay. Are we going to give her a rating?
Andrea: No, we’re not going to rate her, we’re just going to see if she’s attractive or not.
Trevor: Oh, okay.
Andrea: Very Different.
Trevor: So different. We’re not going to rate her, we’re gonna just judge her based on her physical appearance.
Andrea: I don’t know. She looks like every nice old lady I’ve ever seen.
Trevor: She looks like every female psychologist I’ve ever seen.
Andrea: All right. She’s fine.
Trevor: Dean Smith, to be fair, also looks like every person named Dean Smith I’ve ever seen.
Andrea: Oh, he’s got exactly the nose you imagine someone named Dean Smith has.
Trevor: Yeah, it’s perfect.
Andrea: But yeah, this is such a dick move, especially because Jordan had a big dream himself. Statistically-speaking, there’s actually way more people making a living in the film industry than there are professional basketball players.
Trevor: Definitely. Also, it’s like this guy wants to go to the NBA.
Andrea: Exactly, that’s what I’m saying! He wants to go to the NBA and he’s like “oh, you think you can make it in Hollywood?”
Trevor: Right. Cause like .0005% of the population makes it into the NBA.
Andrea: I’ve never heard of Mann and was worried he went on to be a sad Hollywood wannabe who talks about how he used to be friends with Michael Jordan too much, but apparently he was in a bunch of Tyler Perry movies and is doing just fine for himself, so good work, David Mann!
Trevor: He wanted to make it in the entertainment industry? What an idiot!
Andrea: Has he seen Dean Smith’s wife?
Trevor: So just after looking it up, under 2% of people, like a high 1% of people that play in college make it to the NBA.
Andrea: Jeez.
Trevor: K. So if we’re gonna go on like the worldwide population, even the percentage of people that go to college...
Andrea: The percentage of people who play college basketball is pretty low.
Trevor: So it’s literally so much less than 1%.
Andrea: It’s ridiculous. And not that like tons of people make it in Hollywood, but we know people personally that have made it in Hollywood. I don’t know anybody that’s a professional basketball player.
Trevor: Never met one.
Andrea: Not personally. I feel like I know them all.
Trevor: The best basketball player in my school, I don’t even know if he’s alive. He may be. Zac, if you’re out there buddy…
Andrea: Give us a ring, we’re worried about you.
Trevor: Zac Erekson, if you’re out there and you’re listening to the podcast, reach out, I want to know how you’re doing, I want to know you’re okay, and I want to know if you made it to the NBA.
Andrea: I think we would know if he made it to the NBA.
Trevor: That’s exactly my point.
Andrea: During this time, Michael Jordan also met the love of his life, the pastime he would adore more than basketball, more than baseball, certainly more than his family, and that is taking people’s money on the golf course.
Trevor: Oh! It was gambling! I almost guessed cigars.
Andrea: I think he might have started smoking cigars in college, too, but he probably didn’t have the money for it.
Trevor: Probably what happened was a you know, leader-type, figurehead type person handed him a cigar and he was like “oh, I like these now.” That’s how I got into, like, whiskey, for example.
Andrea: Yeah. It’s true.
Trevor: You know, when you’re a young man and you want to impress an older man. You know how it is.
Andrea: When I was a young man...I mostly...Well, no I...mmm, I don’t know where to go from there…
Trevor: I’m like “I’ve never heard about this period of your life.”
Andrea: I don’t talk about when I was a young man very much for good reason.
Trevor: Right, you were a bad young man.
Andrea: I was a bad young man. So bad, I never even had a penis.
Trevor: Oh boy.
Andrea: He was taught to play golf by Buzz Peterson and another friend, Davis Love III who would go on to become a renowned PGA golfer...if you can’t tell from the fact that his name is Davis Love III.
Trevor: It’s true, that is a very…
Andrea: Like the only thing worse would be if he were a professional tennis player, but that’s a little too on-the-nose.
Trevor: Yeah, it’s true, because that would be like “15 - Love”, and everyone’s like...how do tennis fans laugh? Huh
Andrea: Davis Love III says of this time “We kind of created a monster.” David Mann tells the story of one time he was putting into a cup in their dorm hallway when MJ walked up. Quote “He wants to bet on putting the ball into the cup. It was only like a quarter or a dime, but anyway, we did this for like 30 minutes and I was beating him. I had to go to class and he wouldn’t let me stop. So he’s making me stay there, but I didn’t want to lose so I kept putting it into the cup.” When an exasperated Jordan finally gave up, Mann remembered, “He ended up owing me about 75 cents and he never paid.”
Trevor: That son of a bitch. Of course he never paid.
Andrea: Course he never paid. Remember that cute bit on “The Last Dance” documentary when MJ reads that letter that he wrote to his mom asking for $20? I imagine even at that point, it was to help cover gambling debts.
Trevor: Mom, I got a lot of gambling debts.
Andrea: Send me $20 and some stamps.
Trevor: We’ve been betting stamps a lot on our golf games.
Andrea: We’re always betting in stamps, because it’s 1983.
Trevor: Right, they still have value.
Andrea: People still mail things.
Trevor: People collect stamps.
That’s It For Glory
Andrea: The game-winning shot against Georgetown was the highlight, but Michael still had two more years of college ball that he’s playing. He was consistently getting better at the game, but his next two years probably felt like a let-down after such a huge moment of glory his freshman year.
Trevor: It’s interesting. We were talking about this the other day, where back the, people typically had at least two years of college play experience, if not four, most NBA players had like four years of college play experience. I wonder if that produced better players? Like if Michael Jordan had gone to the NBA without four years of college basketball under his belt, I think he would suck dick.
Andrea: It’s entirely possible. And especially, I mean, we’re definitely seeing progression in his game here. Like when he played in high school, he was kind of the star and just like scored a bunch of fucking points. That was a role.
Trevor: This he had to learn a system.
Andrea: Here he’s learning a system and stuff and so kind of combining those things.
Trevor: That’s what I’m getting at. I wonder how beneficial playing those extra few years playing college ball were.
Andrea: Well and it’s also good for, like, getting people into the system, essentially, because if you recall, Michael Jordan wasn’t really on the radar of a lot of colleges. He wasn’t going to go to the NBA out of high school anyway, maybe he would have never played professional basketball.
Trevor: That’s true. Very unique case.
Andrea: Like you kind of need the college system to find where the good players are. Especially back then when there wasn’t as much scouting and all that. After Michael Jordan’s freshman year, James Worthy would leave college for the NBA after that championship win, but the team still had Sam Perkins and obviously still had Michael Jordan and would add players like Brad Daugherty and Kenny “The Jet” Smith.
Trevor: Kenny “The Jet” Smith!
Andrea: But would never be quite as good as that 81/82 season team. The Tar Heels went 28-8 and made it to the Elite Eight in the tourney in Jordan’s sophomore year, and went 28-3 and made it to the Sweet Sixteen Jordan’s junior year.
Trevor: That’s interesting. I’m glad you included the March Madness stats, because I was genuinely curious. I was like “I wonder if they ever even won the fucking tournament. I doubt it.”
Andrea: No, they never even made it to the Final Four again. Like, well I mean, the Tar Heels would, but not in Michael Jordan’s years.
Trevor: That shows you the value and meaning of the NCAA tournament, but it’s fun!
Andrea: It’s fun!
Trevor: I miss it and I wish it had happened this year and fuck Covid-19!
Andrea: I don’t want to talk about that. Agreed. Fuck Covid-19. This is how weird time is right now, because I was like “I should be in a sports bar right now cheering for like five different college teams I didn’t give a fuck about, but literally March madness was like two months ago. It would have been.
Trevor: It would have been over by now.
Andrea: It would have been done by now. I don’t know.
Trevor: You’re correct, but it’s more applicable to like an NBA playoff team.
Andrea: Right. What month is it? I don’t fucking know.
Trevor: You know my first thought when you said that was “What time is it? Well who cares? Well I would care if the things were open.”
Andrea: Literally the only reason I even know what day it is today is because it’s Sunday, and “The Last Dance” airs on Sundays. So that’s my one scheduled thing every single week. And there’s only two more weeks of that series, so...
Trevor: Yep. Time will go back to having no meaning again.
Andrea: Anyway, back to...let’s take our time machine back to when time did matter, in 1982. Obviously, Michael Jordan would still have some great moments for the rest of his college career, and the sports media loved him. In part, you know, because of that like really big start of that game-winning shot in the national tournament, you know, but he was...not that he necessarily was media-savvy, but he was very presentable.
Trevor: Remember, too, at this time, right, he’s not Michael Jordan as we know him. He’s this upstart, he’s this Cinderella-story kid. Media eats this shit up. Where’s it’s like, “Oh yeah, he wasn’t recruited very well and he did the game-winning shot.” All the nuance and everything in between is lost, but what we see this low-down kid who’s making it against unlikely odds. All that kind of thing. He was just perfect for the media at this time.
Andrea: Well, and the thing is, too, at this time the sports media world was kind of...like ESPN was founded in 1979, I want to say?
Trevor: Ah, so they’re still hungry for content.
Andrea: Yeah. More sports are being televised than ever before. People are just starting to get satellite TV and stuff. So, in general people are more...Michael Jordan’s rise, corresponds so beautifully with the rise of the sports television world. And that’s a huge part...It’s the same reason, to refer to another MJ, it’s the same reason Michael Jackson became as big of a star as he was, because his rise coincided with the beginnings of MTV. You’re never going to have stars like this again because of the way that the media built them, I think.That’s actually something we’re going to talk about next episode...I just kind of went on a tangent. The term “tomahawk dunk” was supposedly invented after Jordan performed the move against the Maryland Terrapins in one game. You know the move, where a player flies up in the air with the ball in one hand and slams it down.
Trevor: His arm goes back and then up over and forward, like a tomahawk throw. When you throw a tomahawk, you go up over your shoulder and bam!
Andrea: MJ’s giant hands and crazy leaping ability made it look easy, but it was definitely a move that blew people away. Footage of this exciting play was used in an ACC television promo and started seeding the idea in the public that MJ could fly. Dean Smith was not happy, though. The next day, after the first tomahawk dunk...
Trevor: Wait, was Dean Smith not happy because Michael couldn’t actually fly or was it just the press stuff that was happening?
Andrea: It was more the press stuff that was happening.
Trevor: Goddamnit, Michael can’t actually fly?!?
Andrea: He’s been lying to me this whole time? I recruited this boy because he told me he could fly!
Trevor: That son of a bitch!
Andrea: He would never say “son of a bitch” though. He was a good man.
Trevor: Oh, right. That son of a gun!
Andrea: The next day he called Jordan to his office and pointed out that Kenny “The Jet” Smith (who we will only refer to with the full name of Kenny “The Jet” Smith) had been available for a throw-ahead and that the kind of flashiness that Jordan was using was not the Carolina Way.
Trevor: We’re not flashy, we’re efficient.
Andrea: Yeah, I think there’s some merit to be said for that, but like, you’ve got Michael Jordan.
Trevor: I mean, I initially was drawn to the Patriots, you know, this is a very Bill Belichick type of complaint. With system coaches, system coaches are really effective because it’s not about the player because every sport is a team sport. And so I get why he’d be pissed, but I also get why you’re saying “come on, it’s fucking...you’ve got this guy.”
Andrea: This is so fun to watch, but he doesn’t care about it being fun to watch.
Trevor: He gets wins, that’s why he’s a good coach.
Andrea: No, and you can’t...I mean, I’m not going to say that I’d be a better coach than Dean Smith, so…
Trevor: No, that’s not my argument.
Andrea: Overall, MJ averaged 17.7 pts/game over the course of his three years in college, which is mighty respectable, but nothing close to the insane 30 ppg he would average in the NBA. The joke at the time was “Who was the only person to hold Michael Jordan to under 20 pts/game?” With the answer being “Dean Smith.”
Trevor: That is a good joke.
Drop Out
Andrea: Yeah. Dean Smith’s system-style basketball, with lots of passing, the four-corners offense, it spread the scoring around, but taught Jordan things that he would obviously use in the future. Jordan’s junior year, the big question was if he would return to play a senior year or if he would go on to join the NBA. The season that year had ended with a disappointing loss to Indiana in the Regional Semi-Finals of the NCAA tournament. Much like the last game of his high school career, Jordan would foul out the last game of his college career, and scored a mere 13 points, against a team of five white guys none-the-less.
Trevor: Was that the team name?
Andrea: Five white guys. I believe that’s what “Hoosier” means, the Indiana Hoosiers.
Trevor: I was going to guess that they went on to just become Five Guys Burgers.
Andrea: Yeah, every single member of that Indiana Hoosiers team went on to found Five Guys Burgers and be just as rich as Michael Jordan.
Trevor: Absolutely. They’re all billionaires.
Andrea: Every one of those guys. All five guys.
Trevor: All five of them. By the way, also, Five Guys is somehow worth 5 billion dollars, at least.
Andrea: Okay, now I feel like I have to look it up.
Trevor: No don’t look it up. Don’t look it up.
Andrea: Okay.
Trevor: We’ve already gone on too many tangents.
Andrea: As his junior year started wrapping up, MJ took all of his final exams and studied hard enough that Kenny “The Jet” Smith assumed he was coming back for a senior year. Why would a guy headed to the NBA give a shit about tests? Even a week before players declared for the NBA draft, Jordan was sending mixed messages about whether he was going to play a last year at North Carolina or not. It was important to his mother that her son finish school, as if MJ’s degree in cultural geography would really add to his value.
Trevor: Wait, that’s what he studied in college? Cultural geography? What even is that?
Andrea: It’s a bullshit major you do if you’re going to be a professional athlete.
Trevor: Cultural geography...okay.
Andrea: It’s something that makes you a billionaire, obviously.
Trevor: I guess, I guess.
Andrea: I wish everybody would study cultural geography. So I think to Deloris Jordan, his mother, having a child graduate college was another crown in her jewel…that is not right…
Trevor: Another crown in her jewel!
Andrea: Another crown in her jewel. Another jewel in her crown of respectability. Like her son, she seems a little obsessed with achievement, but through her children. She had been a teenage mother and all that, came from the well-to-do family and married the kind of less well-to-do James Jordan and I think...I don’t know, anyway she was very very interested in making sure all her kids graduated from college. Which I think is good to some extent, but again, if your son is Michael Jordan, like...I don’t know.
Trevor: Well, also back then college, you know, meant something.
Andrea: That’s true. It wasn’t like “Oh, just go get a bunch of debt and then work in a coffee shop.”
Trevor: No, back then, college degrees actually had value.
Andrea: Especially if you’re majoring in Cultural Geography, I’d be like “child, don’t go to college, please.”
Trevor: Just go work somewhere, God.
Andrea: When MJ was asked about what his other parent thought about his choice, he said, “My father’s a clown. I don’t really know what he’s thinking about.”
Trevor: Wow. You know what, though? When you’re that...what was he? 20? 21? I mean, that’s just how you feel about your dad.
Andrea: Yeah, that’s fair.
Trevor: And that’s how he feels about you, too. “He’s just a clown; he’s out there in college. I don’t know what the hell he’s doing.”
Andrea: Michael wasn’t excited about the teams that looked likely to draft him that year. He had hopes that he would get to play with the Lakers. It had been his favorite team growing up. His hero Magic Johnson and his college teammate James Worthy, was playing for the Lakers at this point, too.
Trevor: That’s awesome.
Andrea: But he was also starting to feel he had outgrown the college scene. Dean Smith felt it to, and while his program could have obviously used another year of Jordan, he encouraged Michael to move on.
Trevor: That’s a good coach.
Andrea: Put his player’s needs before the program’s needs. There’s actually a story of the day that Michael Jordan declared that he was going to go to the NBA, one of the big alumni people had a wedding that day, and everybody was just really depressed. Like, way to get married on the day that they say Michael Jordan’s gonna leave and they’re all like huge Carolina basketball people.
Trevor: Man, fuck Michael Jordan for making that wedding depressing.
Andrea: Ruining that guy’s wedding.
Trevor: Yeah, fuck that.
Andrea: MJ promised his mother that he would go back and finish school later, and he actually did uphold that promise. He went back and got his degree.
Trevor: Cultural geography.
Andrea: After he had already started playing for the NBA.
Trevor: I didn’t know that! That’s actually pretty impressive.
Andrea: I think it’s kind of cool. And it was literally like a “okay mom, I’ll do what you say” kind of thinking. Which I think is kind of adorable, actually. Obviously that degree has never done anything for him but…
Trevor: I’d be like “what is the culture of the Ural Mountains?” and he wouldn’t be able to answer.
Andrea: For now, he had given college the ol’ college try and it was time to make some fucking money.
Trevor: Hell yeah.
Andrea: Which proved to be a fortuitous move, as trouble was a-brewing in the Jordan household.
Trevor: Oh shit, what kind of trouble?
James Jordan Scandal
Andrea: We’re ready for a scandal!
Trevor: Oh my god, is there a scandal?
Andrea: There’s a scandal!
Trevor: I love scandal!
Andrea: Actually there’s kind of two scandals. One of them really sucked, but the other one is kind of fun.
Trevor: Okay.
Andrea: Alright. So yeah, I would love to say that James Jordan was an amazing person (this is Michael Jordan’s father).
Trevor: Right.
Andrea: Because, you know, it makes all the more tragic when he gets murdered. Spoiler alert!
Trevor: Oh shit, spoiler! James Jordan gets murdered! Wishes it was Larry!
Andrea: But yeah, James Jordan was kind of a piece of shit. Michael had an older sister named Deloris after her mother, but everyone called her “Sis”.
Trevor: Cause you don’t want to call her “mom.”
Andrea: Cause you don’t want to call her mom, right. This was before she was most famous for being the “sis” of Michael Jordan, but that’s what they called her. While Michael Jordan was in college, she was in the middle of a divorce and then in a mental institution.
Trevor: Jeez.
Andrea: At this time she investigating looking into filing charges against her father for sexually abusing her as a young teen.
Trevor: Oh my god.
Andrea: Yeah, but the statute of limitations had passed, so she was just kind of fucked and really sad.
Trevor: Literally.
Andrea: Yeah, ugh, Jesus.
Trevor: Should I cut that?
Andrea: I don’t know.
Trevor: Such a bad joke.
Andrea: So bad. Family reputation was very important to the Jordans, and the abuse allegations were kept from the public eye until 2001, when Sis published a book called “In My Family’s Shadow”. According to her, she had told her mother about the like many years before, like even when it was happening, and it had caused a big private strain in the family, but outward appearances were much more important. Especially now that the family has a rising public star on their hands.
Trevor: Sounds like most families.
Andrea: Yeah.
Trevor: I think that most families are more concerned with their public image than solving actual issues within.
Andrea: It’s a shame, yeah. It was important to Deloris and James to fit in with the Carolina basketball crowd. Sis reports that they never took the time to visit Medward anymore.
Trevor: Medward!
Andrea: I know! Remember Medward?
Trevor: Oh my god, I forgot that he exists! I wish he was Larry.
Andrea: Sis stayed with her grandparents for a spell after the mental hospital, but she was kind of estranged from her family from here on out. Deloris and James Jordan made a huge effort to go to as many of their son’s college games as possible, traveling across the country and missing a lot of work at their own expense. They were the model basketball parents, supportive and respectable. James was remembered always being in the locker room with his son after games.
Trevor: They were whipping each other with towels. Saying gay slurs and stuff.
Andrea: You know, locker room shit.
Trevor: You know, locker room talk.
Andrea: And he was making sure he was telling Michael what his brother Larry had been up to. But soon the law would know what James Jordan had been up to. The sexual abuse was never criminally prosecuted, but an embezzlement case at his work sure was!
Trevor: He embezzled?
Andrea: Sure did!
Trevor: Oh man, what a king.
Andrea: What a king. As Michael Jordan was preparing to play his first year in the NBA, James Jordan pled guilty to a felony case of “aiding and abetting in commission of false pretense” after being part of a larger fraud deal at the GE plant he worked at. When MJ was a college sophomore, James Jordan had written a phony purchase order to buy hydraulic equipment from a company called Hydratron, which sounds like a…
Trevor: Sounds like a robot name.
Andrea: Yeah
Trevor: Hydratron.
Andrea: It was a made-up company. GE paid $11,000 for the equipment cylinders, but they were never delivered, and James Jordan received a $7,000 kickback. Dick Neher, who you might recall was once MJ’s little league coach, he worked with James Jordan at the time and remembers when the news broke of the crime. He said “Nobody could believe it. All the women loved him. James was a pretty sharp guy. He was very personable. He shoulda went to prison for what he got involved in, because of Mike, he got out of it.” Neher also says the situation was a lot more involved than the one illegal kickback payment, that’s what he was prosecuted for, but James Jordan had been in charge of the company store, and there are numerous tales of merchandise heading to that store being mysteriously rerouted.
Trevor: Huh, so he got caught.
Andrea: He got caught the one time, but probably part of how he was financing the whole rise of Michael Jordan essentially was through illegal activity.
Trevor: Well, well, well, how the cookie crumbles.
Andrea: It doesn’t really matter, because Michael Jordan is a billionaire now!
Trevor: He could buy GE.
Andrea: He could...well, not quite. For his crime, James Jordan was sentenced to 3 years in prison and 5 years probation, but his prison sentence was suspended, and it all turned into more of a slap on the wrist.
Trevor: What does that even mean? His prison sentence was suspended?
Andrea: Yeah, so that’s a legal term, usually if like the prisons are kind of full and you’re not a violent criminal or something, they’re like, “okay, we’re going to push your sentence back.”
Trevor: I see.
Andrea: But he just never served his prison time.
Trevor: Kind of never showed up.
Andrea: And no one ever pushed for it. I guess he was on probation for a bit, but it really didn’t seem to affect anything, other than James Jordan did lose his job at General Electric, but that doesn’t really matter, because his son was about to sign with the Chicago Bulls and he was never going to worry about money again. For the rest of his short life.
Outro
Andrea: Michael Jordan was NBA-bound, and he was going to change the league forever. Join us next time when we’ll put some context to the world Michael Jordan was entering. Next episode we’ll be discussing the NBA of the 80s, including the accusation that the Chicago Bulls at the time were a “traveling cocaine circus”.
Trevor: Oh man.
Andrea: It’s going to be fun!
Trevor: I can’t wait!
Andrea: We’re going to talk about sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, baby!
Trevor: Yeah! Sex, drugs, and NBA!
Andrea: Yes! Until then, if you have enjoyed this podcast, please remember to subscribe, like, like, rate, review, review, favorite, whatever the fucking thing tells you to do.
Trevor: Yeah! Tell us you like it! Tell us you hate it! Leave comments! Follow! Hate-follow!
Andrea: Feedback is amazing!
Trevor: We need it.
Andrea: And more importantly tell a friend, if you’ve enjoyed this podcast, tell a friend to listen to it, too. Spread the word. Let’s all have more people to have fun with. And more importantly than that tell your pets that I love them. Okay, bye! Fuck Michael Jordan is produced by Walk and Roll Productions. Written by Andrea Kelley. Audio Engineering by Trevor Kelley. Art by Spencer Walker. Theme music by Artlss.
