#Mical jorden series

Worthy, who went on to have a Hall of Fame career himself, jokes in the documentary that he started their season at UNC together as the better player, but that didn't last long. All of the UNC players respected Jordan, Doherty said, because while he was extremely talented, he was also 'a sponge, he listened, he learned and he competed.'Īnd Jordan definitely got better as his freshman season went on. Once he got something and added it to the raw talent that he already had, it was really exposive to see.'Īnother former UNC teammate, Matt Doherty, echoed that sentiment in a recent interview.

'From month to month, from game to game, he was soaking up information. 'He wanted to learn, he wanted to grow quickly,' Worthy says in the documentary of Jordan's rabid desire to improve his basketball skills as a freshman. A junior when Jordan was a freshman, Worthy was UNC's best player in 1982 and would help lead the team to a national championship on his way to becoming the first overall pick of the 1982 NBA Draft.

It's no coincidence that Jordan would challenge Worthy, specifically, to extra work on the court. And, here comes Michael pushing me back on the floor, wanting to play a little one-on-one, wanting to see where his game was,' says Worthy of Jordan. 'After about 2.5 hours of hard practice, I'm walking off the floor, like, drenched sweat, tired. Indeed, Jordan's UNC teammates can confirm that the freshman player worked intensely to get better and better on the court, including continuing to practice after the rest of his teammates were ready to head home, according to former UNC teammate James Worthy. 'He never freaking turned it off,' Williams says. Williams was amazed at Jordan's ability to maintain an intense work ethic and strong desire to learn and become a better player throughout his career. Jordan responded by telling Williams he'd worked as hard as anyone else on his high school team, Williams says.įrom there, Williams tells ESPN he spent the next 'three years watching that youngster get better and better and better.'

( Jordan famously did not make his high school's varsity basketball team until his junior year, after he finally hit a growth spurt.) Williams says in the documentary that he told the young Jordan that he would have to work even harder than he had in high school in order to accomplish that goal. 'He wanted to get better and then he had the ability to get better.'Īs a freshman, Jordan told UNC assistant coach Roy Williams (who is now UNC's head basketball coach) that he wanted to be the best basketball player ever to play at UNC - a school that had already won one NCAA championship, and nearly two dozen conference championships, before Jordan's arrival. 'He was one of the most competitive we've ever had in our drills,' Smith said. In fact, legendary UNC head coach Dean Smith said in one interview included in the documentary that Jordan was 'inconsistent as a freshman,' but the teenager's work ethic still stood out.

When he arrived at UNC, the expectations around Jordan were not befitting a player who would go on to reach the Hall of Fame and one day boast an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion.

#Mical jorden series

While the focus of the documentary series is on the Bulls' 1997-1998 season, in which Jordan and his teammates captured their sixth NBA championship, the first episode also examines Jordan's earliest days as a public figure, starting with his freshman college season.