NBA icon Michael Jordan admits hitting the game-winning shot in the 1982 NCAA Championship Game gave him the confidence he needed to excel at basketball.
UNC defeated Georgetown by a final score of 63-62 in the 1982 NCAA Championship Game.
Jordan finished with 16 points while shooting 7-of-13 from the field.
“He (Dean Smith) was drawing up a play for James (Worthy),” Jordan said in The Last Dance doc. “And he says when you get the ball, swing it back, swing it around, Michael should have a shot. He looked at me and said if you get the shot, take the shot. He gave me the green light. I caught it in total rhythm. They had no clue that I was gonna take that shot.
“That turned my name from Mike to Michael Jordan. It gave me the confidence that I needed to start to excel at the game of basketball.”
Jordan spent three years at UNC. He averaged 17.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 101 games.
The Chicago Bulls drafted Jordan with the third overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Jordan had two stints with the Bulls. He won one Defensive Player of the Year Award, three steals titles, 10 scoring titles, five MVPs, six championships and six Finals and made 12 All-Star teams, 11 All-NBA teams and nine All-Defensive teams.
In 930 games with the Bulls, Jordan averaged 31.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 2.5 steals and 0.9 blocks. He guided the franchise to two three-peats and went undefeated in the NBA Finals.
Jordan came out of retirement for a second time in 2001 and played two seasons with the Washington Wizards. He averaged 21.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.5 blocks in 142 games with the Wizards.
Arguably the greatest player in NBA history, Jordan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009. He was also named to the 75th Anniversary Team in 2022.
Jordan is first in NBA history in points per game in the regular season and postseason. He averaged 30.1 points in the regular season and 33.4 points in the playoffs.
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