Post#379 » by fatlever » Tue Mar 22, 2016 3:49 pm
MJ was popular, but in no way shape or form near the level he reached in the NBA. I don't think any old school Heels fan would have ever guessed he would have blown up like he did in terms of skills and popularity. Everyone knew he was good, but Dean Smith had a way of keeping his stars from really shining (in a good way, always kept it about team first). UNC was all about the system and the system was all about pounding the ball in the post. In terms of popularity in NC among UNC fans at the time (and remember this was back when ACC basketball was KING - trust me, I lived it, starting watching ACC and UNC in 1981) James Worthy was probably a bigger star than Jordan. Worthy was the guy that everyone assumed would go on to the NBA and become the superstar. In fact, if you asked me back in 1982-83 who would be the best NBA players to come out of the ACC at that time I would have said #1 Ralph Sampson #2 James Worthy #MJ. Sampson was the guy that everyone in country drooled over. He was amazing in college.
Vince Carter, to a much lesser degree, had a very similar experience in college and then to NBA. He was just another really good player at UNC, but the system hid a lot of his skills. Jamison and Rasheed and guys like that seemed to have much brighter career paths at the time they were at UNC.
Back to MJ... The real truth about MJ and his amazing talents didn't really start to come out until he started trying out and practicing for the 84 Olympic team.
I've talked about this many times, but when I was a kid in the 80s the ACC tournament was so big in this area that on the Friday of the ACC tournament they would wheel in the black and white TVS and we would stop class at noon and watch basketball for the last 3 hours of the school day. That happened across every school in every classroom in Charlotte for the entire time I was in elementary and junior high. Can you imagine that happening now?