Michael Jordan was NOT really cut from his high school team

Do you think this legend should have went unchallenged.

  • No. I want the truth.

    Votes: 3 15.0%
  • Yes. It was a source of inspiration for many.

    Votes: 6 30.0%
  • Not A Single F*CK Was Given That Day.

    Votes: 11 55.0%

  • Total voters
    20

playahaitian

Rising Star
Certified Pussy Poster
Was Michael Jordan really cut from his high school team?

JordanLaney.jpg

It's the "story" of legend, even if the story was always a fictional tale. Michael Jordan, regarded for over a decade to be the best basketball player ever, was supposedly "cut" from his high school basketball team during his sophomore year. Jordan has brought it up endlessly, writers like Bob Greene and David Halberstam trumpeted the tale, and the idea that the Best Player Ever could not be included amongst the 10-best players in tiny Laney High School in Wilmington, N.C., back in 1979 tends to boggle the mind.

It should boggle the mind, because it isn't true. Not just that he wasn't amongst the 10 best, Jordan clearly was, but because MJ was never really "cut." He was sent to the JV team by a 26-year-old coach who was recently brilliantly profiled by Thomas Lake at Sports Illustrated. Coach Clifton Herring is a man who probably didn't think he'd be the subject of anything having to do with Sports Illustrated at the time, much less 30-some years later.

It is a long (for the blog generation) but worthwhile read that cuts to the ever-shrinking core of Jordan, the person whose accomplishments need no inflating, but someone who has taken self-aggrandizing to a new level in the same way that he dominated the game of basketball for two decades after that "cut."

Here's a clip:

In those days it was rare for sophomores to make varsity. Herring made one exception in 1978, one designed to remedy his team's height disadvantage. This is part of the reason Mike Jordan went home and cried in his room after reading the two lists. It wasn't just that his name was missing from the varsity roster. It was also that as he scanned the list he saw the name of another sophomore, one of his close friends, the 6'7" Leroy Smith.

Over the next three decades Jordan would become a world-class collector of emotional wounds, a champion grudge-holder, a magician at converting real and imagined insults into the rocket fuel that made him fly. If he had truly been cut that year, as he would claim again and again, he wouldn't have had such an immediate chance for revenge. But in fact his name was on the second list, the jayvee roster, with the names of many of his fellow sophomores. Jordan quickly became a jayvee superstar.


Bobby Knight also loves to tell a tale of his own, even if his was actually based in reality. About how he told then-Portland Trail Blazer GM Stu Inman to "play [Jordan] at center" when Inman talked up drafting a needed center in the 1984 draft ahead of Jordan. Inman, flush with Clyde Drexler and 20-point scorer in Jim Paxson at the wings, selected Sam Bowie ahead of MJ. Bowie boasted more considerable accomplishments than Leroy Smith did at Laney, but the lesson (I suppose) remains the same.

Size matters in basketball, at any level. Just as it matters in football with linemen or a quarterback that can see over the top of an oncoming defense, it matters in a game where the best possible shot is taken inches away from the goal. And before Jordan, at least in the NBA, no other guard really mattered as much.

Every champion had a center leading the way, even if that center wasn't always the team's best player or leading scorer. Hell, before Jordan won his first NBA title in 1991, league-leading scorers didn't really factor into championship teams. To discredit coaches or personnel chiefs for not recognizing a player who would change the entire way we look at basketball is to yell at anyone who was around before 2005 for not figuring out that we could film hilarious things on our mobile phones and easily upload them to the Internet to much acclaim.

To kill the then-26-year-old Clifton Herring for thinking orthodoxy-first and selecting a 6-7 big man to man his middle over a 5-10 guard that would no doubt lead the JV squad to a series of wins (while developing his game with all the minutes and shots he could handle) is ridiculous. This isn't college hoops, where the 5-10 guard could transfer or fly off to the NBA. This isn't the NBA, where the guard could pout, force a trade, or leave as a free agent.

This is high school, where you have that guard for another two seasons following his assumed brilliant turn with the JV. This is high school, where you have a team to consider in between grading American History quizzes, and making absolutely no money while dealing with the developing egos and emotions of dozens of students.

This is high school. It sucked then and will continue to suck for everyone that is forced through its halls. Get over it, emo Michael Jordan. Because it clearly got a whole lot better.
 

black again

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
He tried out for varsity, and was sent to JV.

He was cut.

That's what I'm saying. If you tried out and your name wasn't on the list, you were cut.

I read this shit earlier today. I guess now they're re-writing history.

I spose I wasn't cut in 6th grade, either. I guess I was on the team, but I never got a jersey and wasn't told to come to any practices or games...gtfohwtbs
:lol:
 

JimJones

Rising Star
Registered
I never played any sports... so let me ask the somewhat dumb question, how does not making it equal a cut? For one to be cut dont they have to first be part of the team? or does cut also mean not giving a shot at utilizing your talents for a particular team or organization?
 

IT IS WHAT IT IS

Rising Star
Registered
This motherfucker was bored as fuck to make a thread 32 years later, and about 10 years after he was athletically relevant... Nigga needs a hobby or something... slow porn posting day on BGOL Nicca :confused:
 

Chi Shot Caller

Star
Registered
being cut refers to both actually. in NBA teams may have 18 players used for the summer league but 3 will be cut because rosters have to be 15 or less. in a similar sense if you try out for the track team and don't make the final number you essentially "don't make the cut", hence being cut.
 

ballscout1

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
[B said:
JimJones;10982327]I never played any sports... so let me ask the somewhat dumb question, how does not making it equal a cut?[/B] For one to be cut dont they have to first be part of the team? or does cut also mean not giving a shot at utilizing your talents for a particular team or organization?

Everybody who tries out for varsity is on that roster during try outs.

As the trim the team down they cut players from that roster until they have their team.

If you tryout for a team and don't make it you are cut.


Jordan tried out for varsity and was cut

Derrick Rose didn't try out for varsity his freshman year because Simeon's coach Bob Hambrick didn't allow freshman on varsity no matter who they were. And he has had many of the best and many NBA players
 

^SpiderMan^

Mackin Arachnid
BGOL Investor
He didn't make the team and was cut, but it was way over sensationalized by the media.JV is for Sophomores.Most articles make it seem like he got cut from a team he was appropriately supposed to be playing for.Like he got cut from Varsity as a Senior or something.The fact is,most Freshman and Sophomore's don't make Varsity.
 

STAR-69

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Mike Jordan went home and cried in his room after reading the two lists. It wasn't just that his name was missing from the varsity roster. It was also that as he scanned the list he saw the name of another sophomore, one of his close friends, the 6'7" Leroy Smith.

Damn, MJ wanted to be #1 really bad!! And, oh yeah he was cut!!!!!
 

KingTaharqa

Greatest Of All Time
BGOL Investor
In the Come Fly With Me VHS Jordan used a paid actor to pretend he was his high school coach that "cut" him. His real high school coach was an elderly man while the documentary used a young guy. :smh: This myth was used to help market MJs shoe line and was also the basis for his Michael Jordans Playground VHS where he mentors a young kid (Caine from Menace) about not giving up after being cut from his high school team and dealing with adversity in basketball. MJ had not won any titles when both videos were produced.

MJs image and story was crafted in a Nike boardroom full of CACs in an era with no google, no social media, and no 24 hour sports news cycle.
 

^SpiderMan^

Mackin Arachnid
BGOL Investor
Even though it probably fueled his greatness, I always thought it was really overblown for a Sophomore not to make the Varsity team. I think most people imagine that he was a Senior and didn't make it.Quite a few NBA players probably didnt play Varsity as Sophmores. Even more in the NFL.
 

Flawless

Flawless One
BGOL Investor
Didn't Jordon invite the guy who he got cut for to his Hall of Fame speech to rub it in his face?
 
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