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| Michael Jordan: Class of 1981 |
Written by: Prospect-Central - Original Article (02/17/13)
(1) Former College of Charleston & Georgia Tech head coach BOBBY CREMINS is credited for initially discovering the hidden talent known as "Mike Jordan." In the summer of 1979, Cremins (who was the coach of Appalachian State at the time) had Jordan's Laney High School team up at his camp as a group. Even though he didn't realize that he had just stumbled upon the G.O.A.T., he still liked what he saw and decided to call a friend and spill the beans.
(2) Cremins called BOB GIBBONS, who was a young recruiting writer at the time from Lenoir, NC. Cremins simply said, "Bob, there's a kid up here you're not going to believe!" At this point in time, the 6'3'' Jordan had not even played varsity basketball for Laney High. Bob Gibbons would go onto write about how good of a prospect Jordan was, but Gibbons only had a couple hundred readers & a small regional audience at the time, thus Jordan continued to fly under the radar despite averaging 25 ppg as a high school junior.
(3) Mike Kryzyzewski & Jim Valvano would pursue Jordan very late in the game, but they were both coaching at Army & Iona respectively at this time, so UNC was the first school to get a glimpse of the future Hall-of-Famer. On a tip from MIKE BROWN, who was the athletic director of the New Hanover County school system, UNC's assistant coach BILL GUTHRIDGE took a trip to Laney High to check out the young Jordan.
(4) Bill Guthridge then reported to DEAN SMITH that Jordan was an exceptional player, so Smith decided to add Jordan to his recruiting list. Assistant coach ROY WILLIAMS was then assigned to call and write Jordan - specifically to induce the young prospect to attend UNC's summer camp. Dean Smith was well aware that no one had stumbled onto Jordan's talent, so he warned his staff not to mention Jordan to any reporters. Today coaches can't comment on prospects to the media, but in 1980, it was not only legal, but happened frequently.
(5) This is where Roy Williams messed up. Instead of taking Dean Smith's advice about keeping Jordan a secret, he decided to call his friend, BRICK OETTINGER, and tell him about the future superstar. Brick was in his third year of covering basketball recruiting for a publication known as "The Poop Sheet" (now the ACC Sports Journal) and decided to check out Jordan for himself.
(6) In February of 1980, Brick Oettinger went with three friends to watch Jordan play, and MJ did not disappoint. In the next issue of his magazine, Oettinger wrote, "You probably haven't heard the name Mike Jordan, but he has the best combination of athleticism, basketball skills, and intangibles of any high school wing guard I have ever seen." Poop Sheet publisher Dennis Wuycik would end up using that quote in promotions for more than 20 years.
(7) Even with the news starting to leak out, Jordan remained relatively unknown on the national scene and Dean Smith was anxious to keep it that way. After watching Jordan dominate his summer camp, coach Smith knew he was sitting on a special prospect, but he also knew Jordan was too good to be kept a secret and it was only a matter of time before he went national. Both Roy Williams and CLIFTON 'Pop' HERRING, Jordan's high school coach, would end up helping Jordan get that national exposure.
(8) Williams called HOWARD GARFINKEL, who ran the prestigious Five-Star Basketball Camp, and arranged Jordan to attend. Clifton Herring would do the same. As it turned out, Dean Smith's worst fears came to fruition at Five-Star. Jordan killed the camp. After Five-Star, the cat was out of the bag. Howard Garfinkel would end up rating Jordan a Top 10 prospect in the country. Brick Oettinger ranked Jordan No. 2 in the country, behind only Patrick Ewing, and Bob Gibbons became the first person to rank Mike Jordan the No. 1 player in the nation.
(9) To sum it up; entering the summer of 1980, Mike Jordan was largely unknown to the public and to the majority of the basketball community; by the end of that summer, he remained a mystery to the public, but was widely recognized within the basketball community as one of the nation's elite prospects. By the time Michael Jordan ended his freshman season at UNC, he belonged to the world.
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