Michael Jeffrey Jordan

The legend began in tiny Boone, NC. Michael Jordan was discovered during the summer of ’97 on the campus of Appalachian State at a camp run by then-Mountaineers coach Bobby Cremins. Jordan was a 6-3, floppy-eared high school junior-to-be who hadn’t played a minute of varsity basketball. He had no nickname, no signature shoes. He did, however, possess the same burning desire to win as he does today. And plenty of potential. Bob Gibbons, one of the nation’s top evaluators of high-school talent, remembers a call he received that summer from Cremins. Get over here, Cremins told him. You have to see this kid. Gibbons made the 30-mile trip from his home in Lenoir and beheld the future of basketball. “What was very obvious was that Michael was an incredible athlete,” Gibbons says. “He was green, but even at that early age, you could tell.” That camp marked the beginning of Jordan’s public basketball life. Until then, he had been better known for his baseball abilities-he was the MVP of a Babe Ruth League team that won the state championship-and had even been cut from the Laney (Wilmington, NC) High varsity hoop team as a 6-1 sophomore, in favour of his friend, 6-7 forward Leroy Smith. “We had guards,” said Fred Lynch, who succeeded Clifton (Pop) Herring as Laney’s head coach. “ We thought he’d be better off playing all the time on the JV team.” Upset but not despondent, Jordan turned to his now-legendary work ethic and spent every available moment improving his skills. By the time junior year began, the then-6-4 Jordan was ready for varsity-and more. “He played basketball practically around the clock, aside from his academics,” Herring said. “He worked hard during his high school years. Basketball was practically his first love.” The fourth of five children, Jordan was born in Brooklyn, NY, and didn’t move to Wilmington until he was five years old. He was a pleasant child, easily distracted by a toy or some food. And it became quickly evident to his parents that Jordan was much more interested in making jokes and finding mischief than working. His mother, Deloris, was constantly disciplining Jordan for pushing the boundaries for proper behaviour. His late father, James, from whom Jordan acquired his sense of humour and habit of dangling his tongue while playing, wondered whether his son was allergic to hard work. “Michael is probably the laziest kid I had,” James ones said. “If he had to get a job in a factory punching a clock, he’d starve to death. He would give every last dime of his allowance to his brothers and sisters and even kids in the neighbourhood to do his chores. He was always broke.” Given his renowned confidence and thirst for pressure, it is surprising that as a teenager, Michael Jordan was extremely self-conscious. He was so convinced that no woman would ever want to marry him that he took a home ec class at Laney, in order to learn how to cook. As one might expect, Jordan did pretty well. He once brought home a cake that tasted so good, Deloris called the school to verify that her son had baked it.

-MICHAEL BRADLEY