Michael Jordan's Career
at the University of North Carolina
Michael Jordan's career at North Carolina was a preview of the many things that he would do eventually accomplish in the NBA. Under the coaching of Dean Smith Michael perfected his skills.
Michael Jordan graduated from Laney High School in 1981. Coming out High School he was a good college basketball prospect. Rarely has college basketball seen a more honored player than Michael Jordan. He was a unanimous All-American as just a sophomore and then repeated that feat as a junior. The Sporting News and Eastern Basketball named him National Player-of-the-Year in just his sophomore season and then he was everybody's Player-of-the-Year choice the following season. He would have surely won those honors again, but passed up his final year of eligibility to play professionally. Jordan made his first impression on the national sports stage when he lead his Tar Heels to an NCAA title victory against Patrick Ewing and the Georgetown Hoyas by scoring on a jump shot with 17 seconds left on the clock. And he captured the Naismith and Wooden trophy's. He left North Carolina after his junior year and made himself eligible for the NBA draft. The Chicago Bulls selected Michael Jordan as the third pick of the 1984 NBA draft. The summer prior to entering the pros, Jordan co-captained the 1984 U.S. Olympic Games in Los Angles.
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Michael Jordan was drafted by the Chicago Bulls as the 3rd pick in the first round of the 1984 draft. Before he was drafted Michael Jordan was sure he was going to the Philadelphia 76ers who had the 5th pick in the draft. But he was in for the shock of his life. The first pick was Hakeewm Olajuwon (Houston Rockets) number 2 was Sam Bowie (Portland Trailblazers) and the third pick was Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls). |
North Carolina Stats
G FG% FT% Reb Ast Stl Points PPG
1981-82 54 .554 .722 149 61 41 460 15.5
1982-83 36 .555 .757 197 56 78 721 20.0
1983-84 31 .551 .779 165 64 50 607 19.6
Total 101 .540 .748 509 181 160 1,788 17.7
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Coming out of college Michael wasn't considered a very good shooter . Since this was one of his weaknesses he made this one of his strong points. Michael Jordan worked as hard as anyone who ever played. |
| Also coming out of college Michael Jordan wasn't considered a very good defender either. So he worked on it. He was a member of the Defensive first team 9 times in his NBA career. |  |
