Was Michael Jordan a great UNC basketball player???

Question

I know Michael Jordan won an NCAA championship with UNC. But was he a great basketball player in college like he was in the 1990s for the Chicago Bulls???

Answer 1

He was Player of the Year as a junior, but no one could have predicted the success he had as a pro. He was taken with the third pick of the draft and there was no controversy at all. He was not a star with the team that won the national title. He was a freshman starter, but Sam Perkins and James Worthy were the stars.

Answer 2

Yes, he made one clutch shot to help UNC won the championship. The next year they were eliminated in the tournament after James Worthy went pro.

Answer 3

Yes, his number is retired there because he was the college player of the year in his last year there.  He wasn't as dominant a player in college as he was in the NBA.

Answer 4

He did not have the nearly as high numbers in college as he did in the pros.  He played within the system at UNC and was around 15-16 ppg player.

Answer 5

He was great, then became awesome and then His Airness, the best ever. He also won gold medal in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Guess against which team he played the Final. Yep, Spain again.

Answer 6

YES

Answer 7

It's said that Dean Smith was the only man capable of holding Jordan under 20 points...and it was true...

North Carolina has always played a very balanced style of basketball.  Their history is full of 15-17 ppg scorers, but not many guys averaged 20 for Dean Smith... (Jordan averaged 13.5,  20.0  and 19.6 ppg for Dean Smith during his 3 years as a Tar Heel...his career scoring average was 17.7.    But Jordan did not stay for his senior year, otherwise his scoring average would have been higher).

Jordan did hit what proved to be the game winning shot as a freshman vs. Georgetown in a great 1982 NCAA final.  James Worthy was the real star of the team that year and, in fact, was selected as the MOP of the NCAA tournament that year.... Worthy had 28 points in the championship game, a 63-62 Carolina win.    It was Worthy who was credited with the "steal" that sealed the game after Jordan's shot.  But it wasn't so much a "steal" as Freddie Brown of Georgetown passing the ball right to Worthy as though Worthy was his teammate.  Brown, bringing the ball down the left side of the court, faked a cross court pass to a teammate...Worthy went for the fake and went for the steal, and was out of position defensively, near mid court... Brown then nonchalantly  passed the ball to an astonished Worthy, and Worthy dribbled to the other end before he was fouled by Georgetown.

Jordan was the college player of the year as a junior, but after Worthy left, North Carolina didn't even make it past the sweet 16, despite  a #1 and #2  NCAA  seed during Jordan's final two seasons there.

It was not until he got to the NBA that his athleticism and all around talents were seen by the rest of the country.  We played North Carolina in 1982 (as well as 1981), but Jordan was just another freshman at the time... Worthy and Sam Perkins were the best players on the team.  Jeez, they were unbelievable.

It was rare for freshmen to start the opening game of a season for Dean Smith... Phil Ford was the first freshman to do that, in the mid 70s... Mike O'Koren also did that a couple of years later, as did Worthy and then Jordan... I'm not sure if Perkins started his first game as a freshman.  

People knew that Jordan would be an outstanding NBA player...I'm not sure anyone really knew just how good he would become.  But he was the #3 pick in the draft in 1984, so he was obviously thought of very highly.

Answer 8

No! He was OVER-RATED just like in the pro's!

MICHAEL JORDAN SUCKS!

Answer 9

yes he was a great player. that is why they had his jersey on their rafters. he got cut his first year but practiced a lot more and was fantastic through out until the end of his career.

Answer 10

yes. he was great in high school too. McDonalds all american

Answer 11

I agree - he was much more dominant in the pros than in college, but he was still pretty good at UNC.